“At that point I asked myself: How is it that she is not amazed at herself, that she keeps her lips closed and makes no such remark?”

“When I meet a pretty girl and beg her: "Be so good as to come with me," and she walks past without a word, this is what she means to say:"You are no Duke with a famous name, no broad American with Red Indian figure, level, brooding eyes and a skin tempered by the air of the prairies and the rivers that flow through them, you have never journeyed to the seven seas and voyaged on them wherever they may be, I don't know where. So why, pray, should a pretty girl like myself go with you?""You forget that no automobile swings you through the street in long thrusts; I see no gentlemen escorting you in a close half-circle, pressing on your skirts from behind and murmuring blessings on your head; your breasts are well laced into your bodice, but your thighs and hips make up for that restraint; you are wearing a taffeta dress with a pleated skirt such as delighted all of us last autumn, and yet you smile-inviting mortal danger-from time to time.""Yes, we're both in the right, and to keep us from being irrevocably aware of it, hadn't we better just go our separate ways home?”

“In her opinion her singing falls on deaf ears anyway; there is no lack of enthusiasm and applause, but she has long since given up hope of genuine understanding as she conceives it.”

“Yet Gregor's sisterwas playing so beautifully. Her face was leant to one side,following the lines of music with a careful and melancholyexpression. Gregor crawled a little further forward, keeping hishead close to the ground so that he could meet her eyes if thechance came.”

“This tremendous world I have inside of me. How to free myself, and this world, without tearing myself to pieces. And rather tear myself to a thousand pieces than be buried with this world within me.”

“I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself.”

“You're not cross with me, though?" he said. She pulled her hand away and answered, "No, no, I'm never cross with anyone.”