Sacrificers ... are not the ones to pity. The ones to pity are those that they sacrifice. Oh, the sacrificers, they get it both ways. A person knows themselves that they're able to do without.

She walked about with the rather fated expression you see in photographs of girls who have subsequently been murdered, but nothing had so far happened to her.

One can suffer a convulsion of one's entire nature, and, unless it makes some noise, no one notices. It's not just that we are incurious; we completely lack any sense of each other's existences.

nothing is more restful than conformity.

very young people are true but not resounding instruments.

The paradox of romantic love -- that what one possesses, one can no longer desire -- was at work.

But surely love wouldn't get so much talked about if there were not something in it?