Then it had not been merely the stars to which he had aspired on that June night. He came alive to me, delivered suddenly from the womb of his purposeless splendour.

One writes of scars healed, a loose parallel to the pathology of the skin, but there is no such thing in the life of an individual.

When she saw him face to face their eyes met and brushed like birds’ wings. After that everything was all right, everything was wonderful, she knew that he was beginning to fall in love with her.

Once a change of direction has begun, even though it's the wrong one, it still tends to clothe itself as thoroughly in the appurtenances of Tightness as if it had been a natural all along.

All that kept her from breaking was that it was not an image of strength that was leaving her; she would be just as strong without him.

We haven’t met for many years, said Daisy, her voice as matter-of-fact as it could ever be. "Five years next November." The automatic quality set us all back at least another minute.

No grand idea was ever born in a conference, but a lot of foolish ideas have died there.