“I had no proof that I had the stuff to be an artist, though I hungered to be one.”

“I had a hunger for things I knew realistically I didn't actually care for.”

“it was all I had, all I've ever had, the only currency, the only proof that I was alive. Memory." p 380”

“One had to cram all this stuff into one's mind for the examinations, whether one liked it or not. This coercion had such a deterring effect on me that, after I had passed the final examination, I found the consideration of any scientific problems distasteful to me for an entire year.”

“Amy: I had something I wanted to tell him. Stuff always gets in the way.Canton: Stuff does that.”

“I could endure the hunger. I had learned to live with hate. But to feel that there was feeling denied me, that the very breath of life itself was beyond my reach, that more than anything else hurt, wounded me. I had a new hunger.”