“Curious," it said. "What you call your decent self doesn't dare look me in the eye! What a mistake people make who say that the man who won't look you in the eye is not to be trusted! As if mere brazenness were a sign of honesty; really, the theory of decency is the most amusing thing in the world.”

“i look back at my paper but it doesn't make any sense. the wriitng doesn't look like mine and yet i know i wrote it. what is wrong with me today? panic rises.”

“I don’t believe I’m hearing this!’ she declared. ‘You’d been positively insulting about the fact that I knew nothing about Sicily—and just because I wanted to fill in a few gaps in my knowledge you make it sound like I had some kind of master-plan to ensnare you!’‘You didn’t need a master-plan, Kate,’ he told her starkly. ‘Your eyes ensnared me from the first moment I looked into them.”

“I don't know where you get off telling everyone what to do. Did I miss the part where you were crowned top turd? I don't want to play the wicked consort of Eric the Evil. Last time I looked, there wasn't a wicked consort clause in my contract." Donna turned to Eric as he stopped by her side. "I can't believe he thinks he can harass me like he does the rest of the poor wretches who work here." She glared at Holgarth. "Why not rent a wig and you can be the wicked consort?"As one of the castle's poor wretches, Eric didn't offer anything to the conversation because he was too busy picturing Holgarth in a wig. And from there, he went on to imagine Donna in her wicked consort costume - short on cloth with lots of bare skin showing. Things were looking up.”

“You look like my every fantasy come to life,’ he whispered, his voice deepening.‘How?’ she whispered back.‘Wicked. Abandoned. And…’She heard his hesitation, was intrigued by it. ‘And what?’‘Here,’ he admitted. ‘Now. On my bed after too long. Waiting for me to make love to you over and over again.”

“When our eyes are graced with wonder, the world reveals its wonders to us. There are people who see only dullness in the world and that is because their eyes have already been dulled. So much depends on how we look at things. The quality of our looking determines what we come to see.”

“Because Christmas did something to the world at large and to individuals in particular. It crystallized all your hopes and fears. It made you yearn and wish and dream. And no matter how hard you tried—it made you realize all the things you were missing in life.”