We all think we have time, you know. It's this miracle substance and there seems to be so much of it, and then all of a sudden, it's gone.

The books weren't exactly Linnet's general reading fare, but a desperate woman will read anything.

Where did you go to school?” Piers inquired. “Your all together too literate for a butler. Most bulters I know say things like as you wish, my lord, and leave it at that. Our conversations should be along these lines: Prufrock, bring me a wench and then you would say, as you wish.

Shame can kill the imagination. It's hard to keep writing in the face of cultural derision.

Chess is the most intimate game in the world. It's like making love. By the time we finish our first slow game, I will know all his thoughts.

I love you," he said, his voice catching. "When I thought you were going to die, I wanted to die.

Oh, I have felt lust. And I've indulged lust. But no other woman has turned me into another person.