“Jonathan tried to catch the essence of love but whether he sunk into the words of a song or the smell of his lover, he couldn't get a hold on it.”

“How far he'd gone! He loved Andrea even for her faults. He was hurt, yet happy. Is this the essence of love, he thought. Pain?”

“They'd made love with such force she'd scratched his sides with her fingernails. With her, he discovered new depths of erotic imagination; he wanted things that had never entered his mind before...She was his inspiration, so unremitting that he started to wear his shirts pulled out over his trousers in order to hide his frequent erections.”

“The greatest fear of Jonathan is the love he feels for his sister.”

“It was impossible to tell at first sight whether he loved his meek, obedient wife, Marfa. But he really did lover her, and she knew it.”

“In mirth he mocks the other birds at noon,Catching the lilt of every easy tune; But when the day departs he sings of love,—His own wild song beneath the listening moon.”

“And he loves to read. He loves the whisper of the pages and the way his fingertips catch on rough paper, the pour of the words up from the leaves, through soft light, into his eyes, the mute voice in his ears.”