There was no single moment when I thought, Aha! What a great idea! Rather there was a slow and gradual accumulation of numerous small ideas.

Sometimes you can know things. Things about yourself. Things from before you can remember.

A good story is always more dazzling than a broken piece of truth.

You are suffering from an ailment that affects ladies of romantic imaginations. Symptoms include fainting, weariness, loss of appetite, low spirits. While on one level the crisis can be ascribed to wandering about in freezing rain without the benefit of adequate waterproofing, the deeper cause is more likely to be found in some emotional trauma. However, unlike the heroines of your favorite novels, your constitution has not been weakened by the privations of life in earlier, harsher centuries. No tuberculosis, no childhood polio, no unhygienic living conditions. You'll survive.' " pg. 303

Our clients' faces, with the customary outward paleness and inner glow of the book lover.

Tragedy alters everything.

Emmeline didn't call me anything. She didn't need, for I was always there. You only need names for the absent.