“How easy it was to make people happy, when you didn't want or need anything from them.”

“There are two kinds of people. One kind, you can just tell by looking at them at what point they congealed into their final selves. It might be a very nice self, but you know you can expect no more suprises from it. Whereas, the other kind keep moving, changing... They are fluid. They keep moving forward and making new trysts with life, and the motion of it keeps them young. In my opinion, they are the only people who are still alive. You must be constantly on your guard against congealing.”

“Yes, if you believed in words, if you lived by words, you had better be careful which words you say and how you say them. You had better be careful what you look up, which words, which names. Jane Clifford, in The Odd Woman”

“The more you respect and focus on the singular and the strange, the more you become aware of the universal and infinite.”

“Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater.”

“Lovers have a language that can be lost--how to speak, how to touch, when to try.”

“And he thought how in all the cases he'd solved the heart of crime seemed closer to his waking dreams than his own shadow and that men killed as easily over the momentary wavering of a perception as they did over the endless torturing of their souls.'Apostle Rising.'They consoled themselves with the merciless beauty of rattlesnakes. They felt their ruined lives run on within them like scars. 'New Bag.'Misery is endurable. It’s happiness that tricks us, offering an unwelcome glimpse into who we really are.'Lunch With Bella'.Love is the most dangerous force on the planet, not hate. More atrocious acts are perpetrated in its name than in the name of all the other gods that govern human behaviour.For in its hallway of mirrors lie the thousand images of yourself you burned and burn to be and those who know how to caress those silent places steal in there and lie drinking the fresh blood from your soul.'The Children Of Other Men.”