“That's the thing about parents, isn't it? They don't really want you to live your own life; they want you to correct their mistakes-Mike”

“Your life is given to you by your parents. If you don't want to live, you have to ask them first.”

“Don't you see?" she says. "I want your life to be better than mine. That's all any parent wants.”

“People want to be happy, isn't that right? Haven't you heard it all your life? I want to be happy, people say. Well, aren't they? Don't we keep them moving, don't we give them fun? That's all we live for, isn't it? For pleasure, for titillation? And you must admit our culture provides plenty of these.”

“If you want victory in your life you must learn to be alone with your own thoughts and cause them to be correct thoughts!”

“What makes me say these things is that I see how much you care about the way people look at you. It matters too much to you. And there are people who take advantage of that. They haven't got anything of their own and they'll leave you nothing for yourself. They want to put themselves in your thoughts and in your mind, and that you should care for them. It's a sickness. But they don't want you to care for them as they really are. No, that's the whole stunt. You have to be conscious of them, but not as they are, only as they love to be seen. They live through observation by the ones around them, and they want you to live like that too. Augie darling, don't do it. They will make you suffer from what they are. And you don't really matter to them.”