“Again and again as we discussed Lolita in that class, our discussions were colored by my students' hidden personal sorrows and joys. Like tearstains on a letter, these forays into the hidden and the personal shaded all our discussions of Nabokov. And more and more I thought of that butterfly; what linked us so closely was this perverse intimacy of victim and jailer.”

“They discuss the characters as though they were living people, and ask frequently, 'What happened to so-and-so?'... as if I got letters from them every now and again.”

“Stephen had just come from a class discussion in which several students believed that the right cup of herbal tea would save them from pain and sorrow. Well acquainted with pain and sorrow, Stephen did not contribute to the discussion. He merely crossed these idiots off his list of possible friends.”

“Then they went on to discuss other things because there is always something more to a person than what somebody else does to them.”

“Okay,” I started, “perhaps at this juncture we should discuss ourrelationship.”“Clue in again, Gwen, the reason our relationship is the way it is, isso I don’t ever have to waste my fuckin’ time doin’ stupid-ass shitlike discussing it.”Oh boy. Now I was getting really angry.”

“I thought you were saying no, no discussion at all”