the actions seen in the novel, Roark surely doesn’t want one moment of his short life wasted. His time is by no means worthlessness to him, even for one second, and he is saying through this quote that he will not let anyone take advantage of him by taking it away. To Roark, this is the greatest treasure he possesses, and he will not let one person have a piece of it. He will defend it against anything. That is one reason why he doesn’t engage in mindless chatter for the sake of socializing. The whole world is Roark’s enemy in this novel, but he still fights on for what he believes in, not knowing about his future, just knowing what he is doing is right. This is the reason he does not socialize with anyone for no reason, and associate with people that won’t hesitate to waste his time. Even if he is forced to wait for someone else, he isn’t portrayed to be the type of guy to mentally think of things without importance. Even so, he says, “I do not recognize,” meaning Roark will put up with someone for as long as he deems it necessary. For Roark is obviously not the type of guy to perform tasks without an important purpose, that doesn’t coincide with the baseline of his beliefs. This self-realization of himself makes him superior to any other character in the novel. ...
