One never knows enough about characters in real life to put them into novels. One gets started and then, suddenly, one can not remember what toothpaste they use; what are their views on interior decoration, and one is stuck utterly. No, major characters emerge; minor ones may be photographed.

I thought I am kissing pain and pain belongs to You as happiness never does. I love You in Your pain. I could almost taste metal and salt in the skin, and I thought, How good you are. You might have killed us with happiness, but You let us be with You in pain.

Grief and disappointment are like hate: they make men ugly with self-pity and bitterness. And how selfish they make us too.

I had never known her before and I had never loved her so much. The more we know the more we love, I thought.

And when we love our sin then we are damned indeed.

All the emotions have something in common. People are quite aware of the sorrow there always is in lust, but they are not so aware of the lust there is in sorrow.

She mixes religion with desertion to make it sound noble.