I was like many another who starts an intrigue timidly. Once into it, I had to go on, and therefore I had to harden my sensibilities.

Reading has always been in the chief joy, a never-ending topic of conversation, and often a lifesaver, in my family.

Art should be truth; and truth, unadorned, unsentimentalized, is beauty.

Now I had lived long enough and had heard enough from urchins my age and from other slaves, to distrust the person who calls himself merciful, or just, or kindly. Usually these are the most cruel, niggardly and selfish people, and slaves learn to fear the master who prefaces his remarks with tributes to his own virtues.

But Time is a great traitor who teaches us to accept loss.

And how to paint your lovely hands, fluttering over the silks like two dark birds?

I was like many another who starts an intrigue timidly. Once into it, I had to go on, and therefore I had to harden my sensibilities.