We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.

He understands my pity for his ridiculous, humiliating physical necessity.

although I love a rich life, I hate an overcrowded life. I believe in rumination and lose half the beauty of all things when I am deprived of the time to ruminate.

I disregard the proportions, the measures, the tempo of the ordinary world. I refuse to live in the ordinary world as ordinary women. To enter ordinary relationships. I want ecstasy. I am a neurotic — in the sense that I live in my world. I will not adjust myself to the world. I am adjusted to myself.

The source of sexual power is curiosity, passion. You are watching its little flame die of asphyxiation.

I hate rarely, though when I hate, I hate murderously.

Secrets. Need to disguise. The novel was born of this.