She was indeed a girl of exquisite beauty. She was one of those languid women made of dark honey smooth and sweet and terribly sticky.

This perfume was not like any perfume known before. It was not a scent that made things smell better... it was completely new, capable of creating a whole world, a magical, rich world, and in an instant you forgot all the loathsomeness around you and felt so rich, so at ease, so free, so fine.

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

He decided in favor of life out of sheer spite and malice.

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

Not a visible enthusiasm but a hidden one, an excitement burning with a cold flame.

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