Hid death has left a vacuum in the party. He spoke less but his few words were of great significance.

[Just before his death, O'Donoghue attended a book party in Manhattan with Marilyn Miller. As luminaries and celebrities drifted by, O'Donoghue asked his friend,] Why didn't I get this? Why did it turn out this way? ... Because, Michael, you didn't want it. You kicked it in the teeth.

I probably can't say the words here. It was party time.

Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery of party, faction, and division of society

I found myself thinking about President William McKinley, the third American president to be assassinated. He lived for several days after he was shot, and towards the end, his wife started crying and screaming, "I want to go too! I want to go too!" And with his last measure of strength, McKinley turned to her and spoke his last words: "We are all going.

As death, when we come to consider it closely, is the true goal of our existence, I have formed during the last few years such close relationships with this best and truest friend of mankind that death's image is not only no longer terrifying to me, but is indeed very soothing and consoling.