'Surely he had me confused with someone else. Although I had regularly petitioned for a brand-name vacuum cleaner, I'd never said anything about wanting a guitar. Nothing about it appealed to me, not even on an aesthetic level. I had my room arranged just so, and the instrument did not fit in with my nautical theme. An anchor, yes. A guitar, no.'
'Valencia's business was a small publishing company she ran from her garishly painted fourth-floor study... Once or twice a week an order would come in, and it was my job to fill it. There were occasional errand to run or letters to Xerox, but for the most part all I did was sit at my desk and mentally redecorate the house.'
'I didn't see this as a romantic idea. It had nothing to do with France itself, with wearing hats or writing tortured letters from a sidewalk cafe. I didn't care where Hemingway drank or Alice B. Toklas had her mustache trimmed. What I found appealing in life abroad was the inevitable sense of helplessness it would inspire. Equally exciting would be the work involved in overcoming that helplessness. There would be a goal involved, and I like having goals.'
'Of all the stumbling blocks inherent in learning a language, the greatest for me is the principal that each noun has a corresponding sex that affects both its articles and its adjectives... I spent months searching for some secret code before I realized that common sense has nothing to do with it. Hysteria, psychosis, torture, depression: I was told that if something is unpleasant, it's probably feminine. This encouraged me, but the theory was blown by such masculine nouns as murder, toothache and Rollerblade.'
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