...talent means nothing, while experience, acquired in humility and with hard work, means everything.

People left him alone. And that was all he wanted.

He had escaped the abhorrent taint! He was truly completely alone! He was the only human being in the world!

When they finally did dare it, at first with stolen glances and then candid ones, they had to smile. They were uncommonly proud. For the first time they had done something out of Love.

He realized that all his life he had been a nobody to everyone. What he now felt was the fear of his own oblivion. It was as though he did not exist.

It was good, really, that this external world still existed, if only as a place of refuge.

He had preserved the best part of her and made it his own: the principle of her scent.