How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
And where he should continue his art was obvious: with Secrets of the Ages. He had spent five years on the cantos of that sequence, poems such as "Secrets of the Child," "Secrets of the Young Lovers," "Secrets of the Old." But his "Secrets of the Dying" had been an arrant fake, written before he really started to die—no matter that people seemed to think it was the most profound canto of the sequence. But now... yes, something new: "Secrets of the One Who Came Back." The ideas were coming and surely verse would follow. (3.45)
When you finish the book, you know that Robert will never get to writing that verse that he thinks he will. In fact, most of what we get of his poetry are these titles, which seem to break down life into fairly recognizable sections: child, young person, old person, dying person. Basically: don't the titles sound very generic?
Quote #2
Those were almost the only books in the house. This family was effectively illiterate. Sure, Miri bragged that many books were visible any time you wanted to see them, but that was a half truth. The browser paper that Reed had given him could be used to find books online, but reading them on that single piece of foolscap was a tedious desecration. (3.61)
If you had a dime for every time Robert called someone illiterate, you would have around half a dollar. And Robert doesn't make any excuses for the people close to him. Robert says this (they are "effectively illiterate") even though his next comment agrees that he could find books online. He basically seems to be a physical book snob here, right? Now here's a question that a website shouldn't ask: is he right to be a snob for physical books?
Quote #3
Some mornings, his mind was awash with ideas for "Secrets of the One Who Came Back" and his revision of "Secrets of the Dying." Yet none of these morning brainstorms contained poetical detail. He had the ideas. He had concepts down to the level of verse blocks. But he didn't have the words and phrases that made ideas into beauty. (3.108)
We hit pretty hard on the idea that Robert can't write poetry anymore… although the book hits pretty hard on that idea, too. It might seem unfair to Robert to say he can't write poetry—look, he still has ideas! Doesn't that count for something? Well, Robert doesn't think so and he's the expert. As long as he can't put words together, he's not really a poet anymore.