“From 30 feet away she looked like a lot of class. From 10 feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from 30 feet away.”

“She jerked away from me like a startled fawn might,if I had a startled fawn and it jerked away from me.”

“Everything a writer learns about the art or craft of fiction takes just a little away from his need or desire to write at all. In the end he knows all of the tricks and has nothing to say.”

“She bent over me again. Blood began to move around in me, like a prospective tenant looking over a house.”

“I got up on my feet and went over to the bowl in the corner and threw cold water on my face. After a little while I felt a little better, but very little. I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance. I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a hat and a gun. I put them on and went out of the room.”

“Her teeth had the nice shiny look that comes from standing all night in a glass of solution.”

“She smelled the way the Taj Mahal looks by moonlight.”