The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea - pg. 38

He hadn't been able to explain his ideas of glory and death, or the longing and the melancholy pent up in his chest, or the other dark passions choking in the ocean's swell. Whenever he tried to talk about those things, he failed. If there were times when he felt he was worthless, there were others when something like the magnificence of the sunset over Manila Bay sent its radiant fire through him and he knew that he had been chosen to tower above other men. But he hadn't been able to tell the woman his conviction. He remembered her asking: "Why haven't you ever married?" And he remembered his simpering answer: "It's not easy to find a woman who is willing to be a sailor's wife."