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

“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 thought if only I had a keen, shapely bone structure to my face or could discuss politics shrewdly or was a famous writer Constantin might find me interesting enough to sleep with. And then I wondered if as soon as he came to like me he would sink into ordinariness, and if as soon as he came to love me I would find fault, the way I did with Buddy Willard and the boys before him.”

“And I, stepping from this skinOf old bandages, boredoms, old facesStep to you from the black car of Lethe,Pure as a baby.”

“It never occurred to me to say no.”

“Eternity bores me,I never wanted it.From the poem "Years", 16 November 1962”

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