"Ringing throughout the house was an alarm bell that no one but Alfred ad Enid could hear directly. It was the alarm bell of anxiety" (St. Jude, pg. 3.)

"He'd never quite realized how seriously he'd taken his father's injunction to do work that was 'useful' to society. Criticizing a sick culture, even if the criticism accomplished nothing, had always felt like useful work" (The Failure, pg. 45.)

"The shame and disorder in his house were like the shame and disorder in his head" (The Failure, pg. 83.)

"It was the same problem Enid had with Chip and even Gary; her children didn't match. They didn't want the things that she and all her friends and all her friends' children wanted. Her children wanted radically, shamefully other things (The Failure, pg. 121.)

"To Caroline it probably seemed that he was changing the rules on her. But to Gary it seemed that the...