Vengeful as nature herself, she loves her children only in order to devour them better and if she herself rips her own veils of self-deceit, Mother perceives in herself untold abysses of cruelty as subtle as it is refined.

Soon, nostalgia will be another name for Europe.

His wedding gift, clasped round my throat. A choker of rubies, two inches wide, like an extraordinarily precious slit throat.

The tiger will never lie down with the lamb; he acknowledges no pact that is not reciprocal. The lamb must learn to run with the tigers.

I will tell you what Jeanne was like. She was like a piano in a country where everyone has had their hands cut off.

Hope for the best, expect the worst.

In a secular age, an authentic miracle must purport to be a hoax, in order to gain credit in the world.