“Dagmar knew there were worse things in this world than pretending to be a caring, demure woman. For instance, actually being a caring, demure woman.”
“He remembered the gravestone of a woman parishioner in the churchyard of St. John's in the Grove. DEMURE AT LAST, it read. He thought that the single most definitive and amusing epitaph he'd ever come across.”
“She was a woman who cared more about what she was right about than about being right.”
“Makes sense," Cal said. "A bike needs to be taken care of just like a woman. Treat her right and she'll bring you happiness you never knew existed. Lock her away and she'll make you suffer a worse fate than hell.”
“Women receive messages from childhood that they may be rewarded and protected for maintaining a childlike comportment such as being demure, obedient, passive and subservient.”
“Being a woman, I tried, I cared, I loved and blamed in return.”