“My yesterdays walk with me. They keep step, they are gray faces that peer over my shoulder.”

“His manual of heaven and hell lay open before me, and I could perceive my nothingness in this scheme.”

“The water rose further and dressed Simon's coarse hair with brightness. The line of his cheek silvered and the turn of his shoulder became sculptured marble...”

“If faces were different when lit from above or below -- what was a face? What was anything?”

“I do like people to read the books twice, because I write my novels about ideas which concern me deeply and I think are important, and therefore I want people to take them seriously. And to read it twice of course is taking it seriously.”

“They walked along, two continents of experience and feeling unable to communicate.”

“...could a face have been fashioned to fit the attitude of his consciousness where it lay suspended between life and death that face would have worn a snarl.”