"The Hotel Schuyler was more than a little sleazy and a great deal of sleazy life went on there. Its spotted rugs and walls were a challenge no effort could meet and the rootlessness hardened over everything, like a scab." Or: "He was as thin as a stick, and his lovely, round, light face, with frightened, shiny, round eyes, looks like a sacrifice impaled upon the stalk of his neck." Or: "She dangled on his arm like a black shopping bag." And: "And then a lifetime with its mound of men climbing on and off."