“And your defect is a propensity to hate everybody."
"And yours," he replied with a smile, "is willfully to misunderstand them.”

“Say all you have to say in the fewest possible words, or your reader will be sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words or he will certainly misunderstand them.”

“Your kitchen is not inferior to a queen's boudoir!' I replied with a pleasant smile, 'but we must leave it now; for the gentlemen may be cursing me for keeping them away from their duties in the kitchen so long.”

“He reminded me of someone who put your fingers in the door and smiled and talked to you while he smashed them.”

“If someone’s face lacks a smile, offer them yours.”

“Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.”

“I’m not trying to—What do teenagers say nowadays?” he asked my grandmother.“Get all up in her biznez,” Nana said. Without cracking a smile.“That’s right,” he replied. “We’re not trying to get all up in your biznez, Ali.”

“The songs are in your eyes.
I see them when you smile.”

“Oh, you hate your job? Why didn't you say so?
There's a support group for that. It's called EVERYBODY, and they meet at the bar.”

“Tell me, Tell me where might there be a refuge for me
from egocentricity
and its propensity to bisect,
mis-state, misunderstand
and obliterate continuity?”