And, conversely, she went on to herself, sneering at the Grand Duke's palace, poverty is wasted on the poor, who never know how to make the best of things, are only the rich without money, are just as useless at looking after themselves, can't handle their cash just like the rich can't, always squandering it on bright, pretty, useless things in just the same way.

Sade has a curious ability to render every aspect of sexuality suspect, so that we see how the chaste kiss of the sentimental lover differs only in degree from the vampirish love-bite that draws blood, we understand that a disinterested caress is only quantitatively different from a disinterested flogging.

The lovely Hazard girls', they used to call them. Huh. Lovely is as lovely does; if they looked like what they behave like, they'd frighten little children.

Home is where the heart is and hence a movable feast.

Language is power, life and the instrument of culture, the instrument of domination and liberation.

For hours, for days, for years, she had wandered endlessly within herself but never met anybody, nobody.

I haven't changed much, over the years. I use less adjectives, now, and have a kinder heart, perhaps.