“I don't know that I understand the human concept of jealousy. I'm not afraid of any other male taking you from me because no man who ever tried such a thing would live. But yes I hold what is mine close to me.”

“I love you. You’re mine. I’ll kill any bastard who tries to take you from me.”

“When I listen to a symphony I love, I don't get from it what the composer got. His 'Yes' was different from mine. He could have no concern for mine and no exact conception of it. That answer is too personal to each man. But in giving himself what he wanted, he gave me a great experience.”

“I never tried to be anything other than a dreamer. I never paid any attention to people who told me to go out and live. I belonged always to whatever was far from me and to whatever I could never be. Anything that was not mine, however base, always seemed to be full of poetry. The only thing I ever loved was pure nothingness.”

“He stops and looks at me. 'I'm here because of you. You're my priority. Your happiness, in some fucked way, is tuned in to mine. Get that through your thick skull. Would I like it any other way? Hell, yes, but I don't think that will be happening in my lifetime.”

“You do know how to play pinochle?" Mr. D eyed me suspiciously."I'm afraid not," I said."I'm afraid not, sir," he said."Well," he told me, "it is, along with gladiator fighting and Pac-Man, one of the greatest games ever invented by humans. I would expect all civilized young men to know the rules.”