The qualities of a second-rate writer can easily be defined, but the first-rate writer can only be experience. It is just the thing in him which esca… - Willa Cather

"Alexandra sighed. "I have a feeling that if you go away, you will not come back. Something will happen to one of us, or to both. People have to snatch at happiness when they can, in this world. It is always easier to lose than to find. What I have is yours, if you care enough about me to take it.

Her secret? It is every artist's secret — passion. That is all. It is an open secret, and perfectly safe. Like heroism, it is inimitable in cheap materials.

"What Hicks had wanted most in this world was to run a garage and repair shop with his old chum, Dell Able. Beaufort ended all that. He means to conduct a sort of memorial shop, anyhow, with "Hicks and Able" over the door. He wants to roll up his sleeves and look at the logical and beautiful inwards of automobiles for the rest of his life."