For the faithful, the patient, the hermetically pure, all the important things in this world — not life and death, perhaps, which are merely words, b… - J. D. Salinger

If there is an amateur reader still left in the world — or anybody who just reads and runs — I ask him or her, with untellable affection and gratitude, to split the dedication of this book four ways with my wife and children.

I thought the two ugly ones were sisters, but they got very insulted when I asked them. You could tell neither one of them wanted to look like the other one, and you couldn't blame them, but it was very amusing anyway.

An artist's only concern is to shoot for some kind of perfection, and on his own terms, not anyone else's.