Quote 1
"Listen, Jake," he leaned forward on the bar. "Don’t you ever get the feeling that all your life is going by and you’re not taking advantage of it? Do you realize you’ve lived nearly half the time you have to live already?" (2.7)
Here, Cohn brushes upon something resembling an early mid-life crisis. His realization that he hasn’t done anything significant with his life motivates his desire to act upon something—it ends up being his infatuation with Brett.
Quote 2
"Have any fun last night?" I asked.
"No, I don’t think so."
"How’s the writing going?"
"Rotten. I can’t get this second book going."
"That happens to everyone."
"Oh. I’m sure of that. It just gets me worried, though." (5.7)
This exchange between Robert Cohn and Jake reveals Cohn’s increasing anxieties about his writing and his general uncertainty about everything, even how much fun he had the previous night. His arrogance is beginning to falter as writing grows more and more difficult.
Quote 3
"Come on," she whispered throatily. "Let’s get out of here. Makes me damned nervous."
Outside in the hot brightness of the street Brett looked up at the treetops in the wind. The praying had not been much of a success.
"Don’t know why I get so nervy in church," Brett said. "Never does me any good." We walked along.
"I’m damned bad for a religious atmosphere," Brett said. "I’ve the wrong type of face." (18.14)
Brett can’t take the contemplative atmosphere of the church—her own demons make her too nervous in such a setting. The "nervy" feeling she gets in church probably has more to do with her denial of her own unhappiness than with anything else.