“The Soul selects her own Society.”

“The Soul selects her own Society—Then—shuts the Door—To her divine Majority—Present no more—Unmoved—she notes the Chariots—pausing—At her low Gate—Unmoved—an Emperor be kneelingUpon her Mat—I've known her—from an ample nation—Choose One—Then—close the Valves of her attention—Like Stone—”

“I'll tell you something. Once I was very fond of a poem by Emily Dickinson or somebody. I only remember one line of it, but it goes, 'The soul selects her own society.' I used to tell it to everybody. Once I quoted it to a friend of mine, and he said, 'Maybe, but the body gets thrown into bed with the goddamnedest people.”

“[…] no man can be a good judge of the comforts a woman feels in the society of one of her own sex […]”

“What does it say about a society that it devotes more care and patience to the selection of those who handle its money than of those who handle its children?”

“And I know Krisztina's days and nights, her body and her soul, as well as I know my own”