Ernest chose to go, she finally thinks, watching the fire turn the papers black. He loved her but he could not live anymore.

No man should be asked to live with so much sadness, and with so little promise of relief.

I want to be a good man, a good writer."
"Be one or the other, Ernest, not both.

Martha thanks Sylvia, gesturing with the book. "Just remember not to try to hard with understanding it, " Sylvia says. "Like people, they're best not to be too thoroughly understood.

The 21st century simply means open century.

The great challenge of the twenty-first century is to raise people everywhere to a decent standard of living while preserving as much of the rest of life as possible.