“Ang cute ni Lor!”

“Yo soy mi adivinanza. Señor, no pretende usted bondadosamente aliviar ni secuestrar mi soledad. Es una cosa que a las mujeres se nos enseña a temer: oh la torre terrible, oh las zarzas que las circundan; no un nido sociable, sino un calabazo.Pero nos han mentido, sabe usted, en esto como en otras tantas cosas. El calabozo podrá ser severo y amenazador, pero dentro de él estamos muy seguras, dentro de sus confines somos libres de una manera que ustedes, que tienen libertad para correr el mundo, no necesitan imaginar. Ni yo recomiendo imaginarla; pero hágame la justicia de creer que mi soledad es mi tesoro, lo mejor que poseo. No me decido a salir. Si abriera usted la puertecilla, no escaparía; pero ay, cómo canto en mi jaula de oro...”

“Funny way to spend your life, though, studying another chap's versifying.”

“We two remake our world by naming it / Together, knowing what words mean for us / And for the other for whom current coin / Is cold speech--but we say, the tree, the pool, / And see the fire in the air, the sun, our sun, / Anybody's sun, the world's sun, but here, now / Particularly our sun....”

“Independent women must expect more of themselves, since neither men nor other more conventionally domesticated women will hope for anything, or expect any result other than utter failure.”

“I cannot let you burn me up, nor can I resist you. No mere human can stand in a fire and not be consumed.”

“Part of her wanted simply to sit and stare out of the window, at the lawn, flaky with sodden leaves, and the branches with yellow leaves, or few, or none, she thought, taking pleasure at least in Shakespeare’s rhythm, but also feeling old. She took pleasure, too, in the inert solidity of glass panes and polished furniture and rows of ordered books around her, and the magic trees of life woven in glowing colours on the rugs at her feet.”