“If he was still alive when this was all over, he might try to find a woman he could spend a night with. One who would understand that he wasn’t worth investing any serious energy in, someone who would expect nothing from an emotionally bankrupt man…Add fifty bucks and that would be a hooker, Einstein.’ (Nathan)”

“If he could not find beauty, nothing else would be worth finding.”

“‎"Well then! it was the end; his ruin was complete. Even if he mended the cables and lit the fires, where would he find men? Another fortnight's strike and he would be bankrupt. And in this certainty of disaster he no longer felt any hatred of the Montsou bandits; he felt that all had a hand in it, that it was a general agelong fault. They were brutes, no doubt, but brutes who could not read, and who were dying of hunger.”

“A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault.”

“Why would a guy spend five years writing a book when he can buy one for ten bucks?”

“Was he serious? Why would she be meant for a guy from Hell? If there was such a thing as destiny, she was supposed to find a quiet, smart guy, one who wasn't over six feet tall, with midnight hair and a face she couldn't stop staring at. He'd be Russian Orthodox. Or Episcopalian. He might even be Jewish. But he wouldn't be from Hell.”