replacing a casual aquaintance with an ordinary daughter does not make a son. - Gertrude Stein

Think of anything, of cowboys, of movies, of detective stories, of anybody who goes anywhere or stays at home and is an American and you will realize that it is something strictly American to conceive a space that is filled with moving.

In the United States there is more space where nobody is than where anybody is. This is what makes America what it is.

Alice Toklas' father had almost once had an oil well they dug and dug but naturally the oil did not gush, naturally not these things never do happen to any one one knows, if it could happen to them you would not be very likely to know them most naturally not.