“Oh, don't cry, I'm so sorry I cheated so much, but that's the way things are.”

“Oh, let me be mawkish for the nonce! I am so tired of being cynical.”

“Why do those people guess so much and shave so little, and are so disdainful of hearing aids?”

“Some people-and I am one of them-hate happy ends. We feel cheated. Harm is the norm. Doom should not jam.”

“Ada girl, adored girl, [...] I'm a radiant void. I'm convalescing after a long and dreadful illness. You cried over my unseemly scar, but now life is going to be nothing but love and laughter, and corn in cans. I cannot brood over broken hearts, mine is too recently mended.”

“A wise reader reads the book of genius not with his heart, not so much with his brain, but with his spine. It is there that occurs the telltale tingle...”

“And yet I have been fashioned so painstakingly,' thought Cincinnatus as he wept in the darkness. 'The curvature of my spine has been calculated so well, so mysteriously. I feel, tightly rolled up in my calves, so many miles that I could yet run in my lifetime. My head is so comfortable.' A clock struck a half, pertaining to some unknown hour. (Invitation to a beheading)”