"He’s about seventy-one, a retired lawyer with a reputation for grouchiness. But it’s less grouchiness, I think, than …"

"“Why didn’t you tell Doug about it, Mr. Nordstrum?” “Because he’s a fool. Has it all figured out what he’s going to b…"

"I was pleased at the thought of a girl with a hope chest full of power tools."

"You had no criminal record, not with us, anyway, but that didn’t tell me anything either; most people have no crimina…"

"But it seems too bad—this universal craving to escape what could be a rich, productive, happy world. We live on a pla…"

"Some writers are belligerent about critics, some are sullen and hostile, but Max was just contemptuous. I’m sure he b…"

"This was in January, and we’d just had nearly a month of rain, fog, and wet chill. Then California did what it does s…"

"I like women, I never run them down as somehow inferior to men, and I have a contempt for men who do. And I think, fo…"

"“You just think about supporting a wife and children on a dollar and ninety cents a day. Most of us work on Sundays; …"

"Haven’t you ever wished it were somehow possible to cross-examine an absolute stranger about something none of your b…"