I didn't understand why, Clay.

I didn't catch a wink.

He said in a studied voice, `` I didn't do it for you.

I almost didn't tell you ''.

I said that it didn't make any difference to me either, as far as I knew.

You thought I was a Mexican, didn't you, buddy ''??

`` I didn't know.

I didn't get a good look at him at all, his back was to me, and I was so scared It was just somebody in a man's suit.

`` Why '', he went on, `` when Rob asked me if he could make his dive on this trip, I didn't think twice about it.

I didn't mean to pull so hard ''.

Dr. Lalaurie and I didn't even know he was in the house until the night of our ball when he came down the stairs ''.

`` I didn't know I was gonna have company in this car ''.

I really didn't know what he meant.

Like the cowboy in Stephen Crane's `` Blue Hotel '', we run around crying, `` Well, I didn't do anything, did I ''??

A special guard was posted at my end of the bridge to make sure I didn't cross, the ludicrousness of the situation being revealed fully in that everyone else -- men, women, and children, dogs, cats, horses, cars, trucks, baby carriages -- could cross Kehl bridge into Kehl without surveillance.

When I informed her that I didn't, she said she would borrow her brother's and bring it to me later that evening.

In describing it to Professor Baker after it had been chosen for production, he defended his great array of characters by declaring that he had included that many not because `` I didn't know how to save paint '', but because the play required them.

I wanted to wipe my flint, but I didn't dare to, the state my hands were in, just as I didn't dare to do anything about the priming.

I just wanted to hear you say so ''.

If you tell him I made a pass at you he might think you misunderstood something I said or did, so instead of just telling him I made a pass, say I tried to date you and that you agreed so you could prove to him what a louse I really am.

I felt that he looked at me coldly and appraisingly and seemed to be uncertain what his attitude towards me should be, but he did not say one word which might indicate that he had been told of advances to his wife.

I must say the figure was well made up.

Of course, males play a role there, but believe me when I say you wouldn't enjoy yourself one bit on Eromonga.

`` I realize that this is hardly the time to say it, Penny '', said Keith.

How he returned in such a ghastly condition, or why, I cannot say.

`` Bastards '', he would say, `` all I did was put a beat to that Vivaldi stuff, and the first chair clobbered me ''!!

I am naive, they say, to make use of such words.

and I have heard many say that they are content to earn a half or a third as much as they could up North because they so much prefer the quieter habits of their home town.

I leave it to the statisticians to say what they were, but I noticed several a few years ago, during an automobile ride from Memphis to Hattiesburg.

The traditional strategy of the South has been to expose the vices of the North, to demonstrate that the North possessed no superior virtue, to `` show the world that '' as James's Christopher Newman said to his adversaries ) `` however bad I may be, you're not quite the people to say it ''.

A man must be able to say, `` Father, I have sinned '', or there is no hope for him.

I want to say more about Gabriel's so-called fundamental law.

Asked which institution most needs correction, I would say the corporation as it exists in America today.

It is to say rather, I believe, that he has brought to bear on the history, the traditions, and the lore of his region a critical, skeptical mind -- the same mind which has made of him an inveterate experimenter in literary form and technique.

For pride's sake, I will not say that the coy and leering vade mecum of those verses insinuated itself into my soul.

At the same time, I am aware that my recoil could be interpreted by readers of the tea leaves at the bottom of my psyche as an incestuous sign, since theirs is a science of paradox: if one hates, they say it is because one loves ; ;

I fled, however, not from what might have been the natural fear of being unable to disguise from you that the things about my bridegroom -- in the sense you meant the word `` things '' -- which you had been galvanizing yourself to tell me as a painful part of your maternal duty were things which I had already insisted upon finding out for myself ( despite, I may now say, the unspeakable awkwardness of making the discovery on principle, yes, on principle, and in cold blood ) because I was resolved, as a modern woman, not to be a mollycoddle waiting for Life but to seize Life by the throat.

`` That was a terrible thing to do '', I said to Oso.

`` But that was war '', I said.

Still, I was disgusted with myself for agreeing with Montero's methods.

In the brief moment I had to talk to them before I took my post on the ring of defenses, I indicated I was sickened by the methods men employed to live and trade on the river.

Next to him was a young boy I was sure had sat near me at one of the trading sessions.

Now under me I could see him for what he really was, a boy dressed up in streaks of paint.

Such was my state of mind that I did not question the possibility of this ; ;

under the circumstances I was only too willing to confess all.

I was nearly thirty at the time.

It was dark and, I sensed, very large ; ;

Sometimes I was aware of people moving about in the darkness.

This impressed me, until I realized how limited was his sphere of influence.

I felt certain he was really a spineless little man.

Once, pressing him, I learned that his job was only part-time, in the afternoons when nothing went on in the hall.

In the mornings, I was informed, fluorescent tubes, similar to the one above the counter, illuminated the entire hall.

I was shown, instead, a batch of white tickets of the sort handed out, he told me, every morning.

Now, here was something of obvious importance to me, yet when I reached for the tickets he snatched them away from my hand.

It was, I felt, possible that they were men who, having received no tickets for that day, had remained in the hall, to sleep perhaps, in the corners farthest removed from the counter with its overhead light.

I felt certain it was self-appointed.

I decided to see no more of the clerk until the processing of my papers was completed.

I was constantly searching for clues around the neighborhood of the hall.