“I had decided I would put off the novel until I had gone to Europe and had a lover.”

“I decided I would put off the novel until I had gone to Europe and had a lover, and that I would never learn a word of shorthand. If I never learned shorthand I would never have to use it.”

“I had been alone more than I could have been had I gone by myself.”

“Then I decided I would spend the summer writing a novel. That would fix a lot of people. ”

“I thought how strange it had never occurred to me before that I was only purely happy until I was nine years old.”

“I had hoped, at my departure, I would feel sure and knowledgeable about everything that lay ahead -- after all, I had been "analyzed." Instead, all I could see were question marks.”

“I saw the gooseflesh on my skin. I did not know what made it. I was not cold. Had a ghost passed over? No, it was the poetry. A spark flew off Arnold and shook me, like a chill. I wanted to cry; I felt very odd. I had fallen into a new way of being happy.”