Lilac makes on occasion a sound between a sniff and a snort that's as damning as all improper words in the language and, like them, can't be written down.

...it's hard to confine an irrational woman in a rational pattern, so I had no idea really what was in her mind.

Her Dream Prince, Gee Gee, was, then, and of course still might be, though I'd always thought of a Dream Prince as having more hair and less avoirdupois.

It is only fair to admit, however, that my batting average in the crystal ball league is point, zero, zero, zero.

You can always tell duty. It's what you don't want to do--it's what you fight against inside you. Duty's when you realize how it'll hurt other people and you choose between that and what would be easiest for you.

You're in the democratic West now, lady. Anybody's as good as anybody else as long as he's got the dough to prove it.

Do you have to do murder?Do we have to do murder? Sure we have to do murder. There are only two subjects--a woman's chastity, and murder. Nobody's interested in chastity any more. Murder's all we got to write stories about.