“By virtue of marrying a man she does not love for money. That's the lowest kind of whore.”

“No, not rich. I am a poor man with money, which is not the same thing.”

“She discovered with great delight that one does not love one's children just because they are one's children but because of the friendship formed while raising them.”

“He was aware he did not love her. He had married her because he liked her haughtiness, her seriousness, her strength, and also because of some vanity on his part, but as she kissed him for the first time he was sure there would be obstacle to their inventing true love.”

“From then on I had her in my memory with so much clarity that I could do what I wanted with her. I changed the color of her eyes according to my state of mind: the color of water when she woke, the color of syrup when she laughed, the color of light when she was annoyed. I dressed her according to the age and condition that suited my changes of mood: a novice in love at twenty, a parlor whore at forty, the queen of Babylon at seventy, a saint at one hundred.”

“That's maybe the reason he does so many things so that he will not have to think .”

“my heart has more rooms in it than a whore house”