“There is no arguing with Johnson: for if his pistol misses fire, he knocks you down with the butt end of it.”

“If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don't put it there.”

“Under an accumulation of staggerers, no man can be considered a free agent. No man knocks himself down; if his destiny knocks him down, his destiny must pick him up again.”

“It is one of the great joys of home ownership to fire a pistol in one's own bedroom”

“For the cold of the pistol-butt and the bullet's heat,
For the ropes that choke, the manacles that bind,
The huge voice, metal, that lies from a thousand tubes
And the stuttering machine-gun that answers all.”

“Mercifully, Henry hit him with the soft end of the pistol.”

“I will get back on my feet even if I am knocked down’. For that, you need to know what all might knock you down and where would you fall.”

“He says his aim is poetry. One does not aim at poetry with pistols. At poets, perhaps.”

“It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up.”

“The knocking persisted. It wasn't Derek. His knock would be careful, almost apologetic. This bastard knocked like he was doing me a favor.”