„(…) the world could see and he could believe that he was out with me, his friend, he was not there out of desperation (…)“

„Their decisions are not really decisions at all (…), but elaborate systems of evasion (…).“

„I did not want to be his buddy, I wanted to be his son.“

„A cavern opened in my mind, black, full of rumor, suggestion, of half-heard, half-forgotten, half-understood stories, full of dirty words.“

„(…) that I have never truly forgotten it.“

„(…) for nothing is more unbearable, once one has it, than freedom.“

„I am not sure now, in spite of everything, that it ever really meant more than that to me.“

„(…) a girl (…) who will wonder why I have not been flirting with her (…)“

„Letztlich war er weder in landläufiger Weise religiös noch war er säkular.“

5. Kapitel „Die goldenen Zwanziger und danach“