“She might have acted like she didn't know.But she knew,a woman always knows”

“A strong woman is not born, she is made!”

“She had not the strength to come to life now, in England, so foreign, skies so hostile. She knew she would die like an early, colourless, scentless flower that the end of the winter puts forthmercilessly. And she wanted to harbour her modicum of twinkling life.”

“Having a baby is part of a woman's life, and it is surely a great waste to be afraid of life.”

“She is a woman, how can you confuse her for a man?”

“She came over and looked at the picture. Then she took my hand. You know what that feels like?Like what the astronauts will feel when they step onto the moon for the very first time.”

“There was a warmth of fury in his last phrases. He meant she loved him more than he her. Perhaps he could not love her. Perhaps she had not in herself that which he wanted. It was the deepest motive of her soul, this self-mistrust. It was so deep she dared neither realise nor acknowledge. Perhaps she was deficient. Like an infinitely subtle shame, it kept her always back. If it were so, she would do without him. She would never let herself want him. She would merely see.”