So Big by Edna Ferber

"They're nice," she said, "but they don't have much fun. [...] They're professional amateurs, trying to express something they don't feel; or that they don't feel strongly enough to make it worth while expressing." (240)

"He tore at the smooth wall of her indifference, though he only cut and bruised his own hands in doing it." (242)

(1924. New York: Perennial, 2000)