Wasn't it a hell of a shame, the way good country got wasted on folks.

People can be stunningly unobservant.

But it's hard for a man to give up all his pleasures, even when they don't pleasure him no more.

Every religion lies. Every moral precept is a delusion. Even the stars are a mirage. The truth is darkness, and the only thing that matters is making a statement before one enters it. Cutting the skin of the world and leaving a scar. That's all history is, after all: scar tissue.

Everyone needs a hobby, he said. And everyone needs a miracle or two, just to prove life is more than just one long trudge from the cradle to the grave.

No matter how many times you shake it the last drop always ends up in your pants

It's a cash and carry world. Sometimes you pay a little. Mostly it's a lot. Sometimes, it's everything you have.

That whole program took on a life of its own.

In bowling and in life, if a person made the spares, the strikes would take care of themselves.