This intimacy is not necessary; no one is compelling me to open my inmost self and lay it naked, undefended, against that of another – merely for the joy of the communion.

I am driven by a greater force than I can resist. I believe that force has its own reason and its own morality even if they may never be clear to me while I am alive

We're deaf men working as musicians; we play the music but we can't hear it.

I'd never chosen to be alone, but that was the way things had turned out, and I'd grown used to it.

Some crime against nature is about to be committed. I feel it in my veins. These men and boys are grocers and clerks, gardeners and fathers - fathers of small children. A country cannot bear to lose them.

It was entirely silent and I tried to breathe its peace.

Our own choices might not be as good as those that are made for us.