Quotables

How little we make of what we know of anyone, how little we employ it.

So Corde slept a great deal, but not well. The restless ecstasy was what he had.

…she had not the faintest notion of the mysteries of harmony…

There is no reentry from the orbit of transcendence.

Forbidden are words about flowers. Forbidden is spring. In general, all the good words are faint with exhaustion.

In these prayers the child Charlotte routinely asked that "it" turn out all right, "it" being unspecified and all-inclusive, and she had been an adult for some years before the possibility occurred to her that "it" might not.

I drank soda water and smoked and fretted, until light began to break and the rustle of a rising breeze turned me back to my bed.

How idiotic. Childishly idiotic. A moment's impression. An old weakness. A matter of temperament.

I drifted into the street lit with love and began turning imaginary handsprings.

The cat house of a zoo has an ornery smell, an air prowled by sleep, mangy with old breath and dead desires.

For all this gaiety of color, the gloom was very deep.