“I went to a box room at the top of the house and locked myself in, in order to be alone with my aching miseries.”

“In my defence I can only say that her past, too, like mine, like everyone's in fact, was a locked box. Occasionally we allow people a peep, but generally only at the top level. The darker streams of our memories we negotiate alone.”

“I do all this alone, everything I achieve, I achieve alone, because it's my head I'm locked into, and I share this space with nobody but myself.”

“I am an honest girl, M. le Vicomte de Chagny, and I don't lock myself up in my dressing-room with men's voices.”

“Leave the star on top," said an achingly gen­tle, deep voice. "There's al­ready one angel in the room.”

“Populus me sibilat, at mihi plaudoIpse domi stimul ac nummos contemplar in arca.(The public hiss at me, but I cheer myself when in my own house I contemplate the coins in my strong-box.)”