“Sometimes he felt her watching him in return. Studying him. Once he heard her breathing stop, then start then stop again. 'What is it?' he asked, and she frowned a little. I'm trying to breathe with you.”

“Her black eyes picked up a touch of green from her sweater, transforming them into the eerie night forest color of childhood terrors.”

“...I knew he had something that so many of my other students were lacking... desire. Not just the desire to create because for an artist that desire arises with no conscious effort- like lust.”

“I hope it's that she simply doesn't figure large enough in his life to be worth mentioning, Vita thought.And then she thought, if that was the case. It was therefore rather pathetic that Suzie loomed larger for her than for Tim, that Suzie was in some ways a more real presence in her life than in his. What she thought it boiled down to was that she really didn't want the woman he left her for to be the true, profound love of his life.I auditioned for that role. I put so much effort into it, I loved it. I'm not ready to let it go to someone else.But you keep forgetting he didn't leave you, Vita - you left him.And then she thought, is this a slewed version of Aesop's dog in the manger? I don't want him - but I don't want him wanting anyone else?And then she thought, For God's sake, shut up! This is doing me no good at all. All this thinking and wondering that I do isn't going to change him or the past. What a waste of quarter of an hour - sifting through all that emotional JUNK. She knew there was nothing of value in it- she'd been through it with a fine toothcomb over and again.”

“For the first time in her life, she read voraciously. Anything that was on Joe's bookshelves she considered to have a worthy seal of approval. She tried authors she'd never heard of and authors she'd always meant to read. Every now and then she read passages twice, three times even, enjoying the wordcraft, the drama - but imagining that Joe had liked the book and wondering when he might be back and if there would be dinners they could share to discuss books they'd both read. [...] Tess was well aware it was escapiscm but what a way to pass another evening on her own.”

“She smiled at him, and he stopped breathing.”

“She liked him. She liked the feeling of liking him. She felt light and smiley and too full of excitement to think of anything else. ”