“It happend that Bob referred in front of Paul to the young woman met in Chantilly; it happened that Paul spoke to Bob of the one from the cinema that he'd had so much trouble seeing again. It never occurred to them that these portraits might bear a certain resemblance to each other, and the fact is that they bore none at all.”

“About the other one, which for the moment bears the code name Dedale 39, we know only what Ravel is willing to say about it one day to Manuael De Falla: it was supposed to be an airplane in the key of C.”

“Ví dobře, že provedení určité skladby, zejména pomalé, vyžaduje výdej fyzické síly, čemuž se radši vyhne. Oč lepší je ležérní přístup - ten nedávno k dokonalosti, když zkomponoval doprovod k Ronsardovi na duši jen pro levou ruku, neboť předpokládal, že sám bude pravačkou kouřit.”

“In their opinion, a tragedy with so little plot could not conform with the rules of drama. I enquired whether they were complaining that they had found my play boring. I was told that none of them was bored, that they were often touched by it, and that they would go and see it again with pleasure. What more do they want?”

“I cried, a bit, as a spoke to Belinda on my mobile phone, in a quiet corner, perhaps the only quiet corner in Jaipur. I told her how I'd hoped Paul would read the forward, that he'd read how much I admired his work and how much I admired him, how much I just plain liked him and loved him. But, even as I spoke, I knew: Paul had always known that. He'd seen in on my face every time we met. What made me cry was the obvious, stupid fact that we'd never meet again.”

“But in the daytime it was all right. And when you'd had a drink you knew it was the best way to live in the world because anything might happen. I don't know how people live when they know exactly what's going to happen to them each day.”

“...the characters in my books all resemble each other. They live, with minor variations, the same moments, the same perils, and when I speak of them, my language, which is inspired by them, repeats the same poems in the same tone.”