“The most intimate moments in the world don't happen in nightclubs or backstage or even on the movie screen. They were moments like this: sitting silently, comfortably, holding hands on a darkened bedroom floor.”

“She knew with suddeness and ease that this moment would be with her always, within hand's reach of memory.She doubted if they all sensed it - they had seen the world - but even George was silent for a minute as they looked, and the scene, the smell, even the sound of the band playing a faintly recognisable movie theme, was locked forever in her, and she was at peace.”

“Tess once walked into their bedroom and found them sitting up in bed, perfectly silent, holding hands in the twilight. That image had stayed with her, had given her the notion that love lasts forever.”

“The pale stars were sliding into their places. The whispering of the leaves was almost hushed. All about them it was still and shadowy and sweet. It was that wonderful moment when, for lack of a visible horizon, the not yet darkened world seems infinitely greater—a moment when anything can happen, anything be believed in.”

“It was in a way a comforting idea; if there was all the time in the world, then the happenings of a given moment became less important.”

“For a moment I want to believe him. For a moment I want to sit on the floor and cry out the ocean lodged in my throat.”