Topaz was wonderfully patient - but sometimes I wonder if it is not only patience, but also a faint resemblance to cows.

...I have noticed that when things happen in one's imaginings, they never happen in one's life, so I am curbing myself.

He laughed a little, in an odd, nervous kind of way. "Because if I don't get going soon, the whole impetus may die--and if that happens, well, I really shall consider a long, restful plunge into insanity. Sometimes the abyss yawns very attractively.

Perhaps what you call conventionality, I call decency.

Perhaps if I make myself write I shall find out what is wrong with me.

Wakings are the worst times--almost before my eyes are open a great weight seems to roll on my heart.

Was I the only woman in the world who, at my age - and after a lifetime of quite rampant independence - still did not quite feel grown up?