“Self pity, Orito reminds herself yet again, is a noose dangling from a rafter.”

“Orito banishes all thoughts of Jacob de Zoet, and recalls Jacob de Zoet.”

“Oh, aging is ruddy unbearable! The I's we were yearn to breathe the world's air again, but can they ever break out from these calcified cocoons?”

“She has to lose her pre-Copernican view of a universe revolving around herself.”

“Yet what is any ocean but a multitude of drops?”

“You are the man. You have to take your dignity and self respect to the pawnbrokers.”

“A man like me has no business with this substance "beauty," yet here she is, in these soundproofed chambers of my heart.”