When I saw him look at me with lust, I dropped my eyes but, in glancing away from him, I caught sight of myself in the mirror. And I saw myself, suddenly, as he saw me, my pale face, the way the muscles in my neck stuck out like thin wire. I saw how much that cruel necklace became me. And, for the first time in my innocent and confined life, I sensed in myself a potentiality for corruption that took my breath away.

Some cities are women and must be loved; others are men and can only be admired or bargained with

I think I want to be in love with you but I don't know how.

It shone on everyone, whether they had a contract or not. The most democratic thing I'd ever seen, that California sunshine.

I know that whenever a group of women are gathered together, the grandmother always makes a phantom appearance, hovering above them.

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.

Irish was a man of parts even if some of them didn't work too well.