"An agility astounding, a strength superhuman, a ferocity brutal, a butchery without motive, a grotesquerie in horror absolutely alien from humanity..."

"It has not been in the pursuit of pleasure that I have periled life and reputation and reason. It has been the desperate attempt to escape from torturing memories, from a sense of insupportable loneli…"

"I intend to be the first American author of any note."

"And then there stole into my fancy, like a rich musical note, the thought of what sweet rest there must be in the grave."

"Never to suffer would never to have been blessed."