“You're irritating me. It's not a good thing to start off by irritating the person who's supposed to decide your case.”

“The most irritating thing about cliches, I decided, was how frequently they were true.”

“A good example is more irritating than a bad one.”

“Inspiration: A miasma originating in the head that pollutes the body and irritates good sense.”

“Nothing is more irritating and hurtful than a person who makes promises and breaks them over and over again. It shows lack of consideration for the other's feelings and also means the person cannot be trusted or relied upon. Do not make promises you feel you may not be able to keep, because besides being irritating, it also ruins character.”

“The wise will determine from the gravity of the case; the irritable from sensibility to oppression; the high-minded from disdain and indignation at abusive power in unworthy hands.”

“Another irritating thing about Naqsans was their habit of solemnly repeating the obvious. In that respect they were almost as bad as humans.”

“Perhaps it's good you're not going to write anymore: you'd have to start considering all those dull things like your relation to your audience, the relation between your personality and your poetry, the relation between your poetry and all the poetry before it.”

“Humor is the great thing, the saving thing. The minute it crops up, all our hardnesses yield, all our irritations and resentments flit away and a sunny spirit takes their place.”

“We're late," she said, "The show is supposed to start in ten minutes. If some people hadn't decided that 'semiformal' meant 'seminaked'-"

"Why are you calling me 'some people'?" Mark inquired. "I am only one person.”