“How much vanity must be concealed-not too effectively at that- in order to pretend that one is the personal object of a divine plan?”

“Not surprisingly, because too much attention to one object leads to distraction, this one object conceals everything else, and when we focus on one point on the map we know that all other points are eluding us.”

“...The men eyed her with the automatic mix of curiosity, lust, and aesthetic judgment they always gave young women, subject to object, the way you'd stare at an animal. She pretended not to notice. To remind them she was a person was too much effort. Objects bore no guilt.”

“Good breeding consists of concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person.”

“The more they measure, the more they realize how much the Greeks departed from regular and banal lines in order to produce their effect.”

“You know how it is. Someone pretends to love you, and you give too much away.”