Immortality is like trying to carve your initials in a block of ice in the middle of July. - Arthur Miller

They don't need me in New York. I'm the New England man. I'm vital in New England.

I don't know what the hell I'm workin' for. Sometimes I sit in my apartment–all alone. And I think of the rent I'm paying. And it's crazy. But then, it's what I always wanted. My own apartment, a car, and plenty of women. And still, goddammit, I'm lonely.

On the day the world is blown up, the playwright whose show opened the night before will be leafing past the news section of the Times to find his review — as he ascends through the stratosphere, oblivious.