“Howard and Shirley were clothed, always, in an invisible layer of decorum that they never laid aside.”

“Naturally Shirley had known, as they slid stock words and phrases back and forth between them like beads on an abacus, that Howard must be as brimful of ecstasy as she was; but to express these feelings out loud, when the news of death was still fresh in the air, would have been tantamount to dancing naked and shrieking obscenities, and Howard and Shirley were clothed, always, in an invisible layer of decorum that they never laid aside.”

“She was a page torn from a calendar, a year folded neatly and laid aside in some place you never look.”

“I never thought of clothes as having a life of their own -but they do. We all wear an outer layer to hide who we really are.”

“Are you really going to work in that?" Maura asked.Blue looked at her clothing. It involved a few thin layering shirts, including one she had altered using a method called shredding. "What's wrong with it?"Maura shrugged. "Nothing. I always wanted an eccentric daughter. I just never realised how well my evil plans were working.”

“Shirley took the view that the past disintegrated if you never mentioned it.”