“Mrs. Ballinger is one of the ladies who pursue Culture in bands, as though it were dangerous to meet it alone.”

“Mrs Poste, who had wished people to live beautiful lives and yet be ladies and gentlemen.”

“Mrs. Edmund smiled and then turned to go. "I'll leave you two alone."Who? Me and the door? Yes, we were bonding quite well.”

“A sacred picture of Saint Anthony alone is one vertical, unwavering band of light. If a cockroach were near him, or a cocktail waitress, the picture would be two such bands of light. Our awareness is all that is alive and maybe sacred in any of us. Everything else about us is just dead machinery.”

“But I knew one more thing. That people who denied who they were or where they had been were in the greatest danger.”

“It was as though I had one map inside my head and it led to the man who was waiting for me. Someone who was alone — maybe even more alone — than I was…”