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"What do you read?"
"I am looking for the novelists whose writing is an extension of their intellect rather than an extension of their neurosis."

"All depression has its roots in self-pity, and all self-pity is rooted in people taking themselves too seriously."

"Humanity is generally offensive," he told her happily. "Life's an offensive proposition from beginning to end. Maybe those who can't tolerate offense ought to just go ahead and end it all, and maybe those who demand financial compensation for offense ought to have it ended for them."

The sun was low but the air was still balmy, and the sea was the shade of blue that black could have been if it hadn't stepped over the line.

"Faites de beaux rêves, monsieur," she called as she put out the light.
Switters had always loved that expression, "Make fine dreams." In contrast to the English, "Have sweet dreams," the French implied that the sleeper was not a passive spectator, a captive audience, but had some control over and must accept some responsiblity for his or her dreaming. Moreover, a "fine" dream had much wider connotations than a "sweet" one.

"My grandmother," he said, "confessed to me once that before she'd ever let herself become deeply involved with a man, she'd make sure to get him drunk. Maestra claims you can never know who a person really is unless you've seen how they behave when under the spell of Bacchus. It's a hard and fast rule with no exceptions: a bad drunk will make a bad husband. Or wife, for that matter. Sobriety, for some people, is a thin and temporary disguise."

The French say that the best part of an affair is going up the stairs. Desire is almost always more thrilling than fulfillment.

... while Switters appreciated profanity's occasional value as verbal punctuation, as a highly effective vehicle for emphasis, he was scornful when louts swore as a substitute for vocabulary, youths as a substitute for rebellion, stand-up comics as a substitute for wit.