“... and in the homosexual phase which would follow Eurydice's death ... Orpheus sings no more, he writes.”

“Orpheus. Had the name he had taken ever suited him better? But he would be wilier than the singer whose name he had stolen. He would indeed. He would send another man into the realm of Death in the Fire-Dancer's place-and he'd make sure that he didn't come back.”

“Love is like death. It is fulfillment and an evening after which nothing more may follow.”

“If fervent memory could raise the dead, she would be our Eurydice.”

“To write and not tell the truth? That would be death for any writer. But more, it would be death to the imagination. And if the imagination dies, what would happen to the souls of children?”

“My desire to write is connected with my homosexuality. I need the identity as a weapon, to match the weapon that society has against me. It doesn’t justify my homosexuality. But it would give me — I feel — a license.”