How we cite our quotes: The book doesn't have numbered or titled chapters, but it is broken up into sections with sub-sections under these. We'll call this Chapter:Section:Paragraph.
Quote #1
"What I mean to say is that when I need it most, something is missing in me, in me or on account of me." (2.2.58)
Frank Alpine has a lived a difficult life, in part due to misfortune and events out of his control, but also because of his own impatience, restlessness, and other personal vices. He recognizes this about himself. He knows he could accomplish more than he has, but he's got to take matters into his own hands and gain control over his life to succeed further.
Quote #2
"Nobody has any responsibility to take care of me but myself. I couldn't find any job. I used up every last cent I had." (2.4.41)
Frank sounds a little like an Ayn Rand protagonist here. He doesn't feel entitled to anything, in this moment at least. When he's done wrong, he'll seek forgiveness like a hound, hopeful that he won't be back to being on his own.
Quote #3
He felt very bad, as he had known he would, that he had done what he had. If he had it to do over he wouldn't do it this way. (3.2.20)
Desperate to talk to Helen, Frank has made it seem that she has a phone call waiting. She doesn't. He just wants to get her close so he can strike up a conversation. But he feels bad because he's trying to begin a relationship on shaky ground. Smooth move, Frank; you're a real Casanova.
Quote #4
Frank felt troubled about the raise because he was earning something for his labor that Ida knew nothing of, for business was a little better than she thought. (3.3.5)
Leave it to Frank. He'll steal from you, but then feel bad about it. The raise he gets serves as a punishment.
Quote #5
One night he felt very bad about all the wrong he was doing and vowed to set himself straight. If I could do one right thing, he thought, maybe that would start me off. (3.4.1)
Frank is constantly looking for new beginnings, clean slates on which to chart his life anew. When he wrongs others, he pleads for forgiveness so he can start fresh.
Quote #6
Let him sell, thought Morris. He thought, let him die, then severely struck his chest. (4.2.1)
Morris beats himself up over his faults and failings, and does so immediately…much like Frank. Maybe these two aren't so different after all.
Quote #7
The thought had lived in him with claws, or like a thirst he could never spit out, a repulsive need to get out of his system all that had happened—for whatever had happened had happened wrong; to clean it out of his self and bring in a little peace, a little order; to change the beginning, beginning with the past that stupendously stank up the now—to change his life before the smell of it suffocated him. (4.5.5)
If Frank Alpine were a vampire, he'd be Angel from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, eternally seeking redemption, and never ever sparkly.
Quote #8
Morris then thought, yes, the clerk could have been stealing, but, if so it was more his fault than Frank's. (5.5.24)
The Bober family members have a tendency to blame themselves for other people's failures. Morris is the most extreme. He blames himself first and foremost, as if he were more blameworthy than the actual wrongdoer.
Quote #9
Ida, holding a wet handkerchief to her eyes, thought, … A person doesn't always want to worry if she will be in the street tomorrow. She wants sometime's a minute's peace. But maybe it's my fault, because I didn't let him be a druggist. (9.5.14)
Ida doesn't all out blame herself for the family's bad times, but she wonders whether she shares some of that blame, namely for not letting Morris pursue pharmacy those many years ago. You live and you learn.
Quote #10
His staying power mystified and frightened her, because she felt in herself, since the death of Ward Minogue, a waning of outrage. Although she detested the memory of her experience in the park, lately it had come back to her how she had desired that night to give herself to Frank, and might have it Ward hadn't touched her. She had wanted him. If there had been no Ward Minogue, there would have been no assault. If he had made his starved leap in bed she would have returned the passion. She had hated him, she thought, to divert hatred from herself. (10.5.4)
Helen's self-blame may be the most upsetting to readers. Frank has sexually assaulted her and yet remains in her life, despite her desire for him to be far away. Here, in her mind, she's minimizing Frank's offense against her, thinking of him as having been starved and overcome with passion, as if he were a victim. Puh-lease.