“You look like a handsome young man…although you might want to zip your fly.Mom!What? Should I have not told you and left it for everyone else to notice at the dance?”

“I don't want you stashing yourself away with your Smolny friends tonight," Maman said. "I want to see you dancing with lots of handsome young princes and grand dukes."I rolled my eyes and stared out the window at the snow-covered city. I resolved to dance with the ugliest and the poorest men in the ballroom--if they should ask me.”

“This is my heart. You are touching it with your left hand. You are touching it with your left hand, not because you are left-handed, although you might be, but because I am holding it against my heart. What you are feeling is the beating of my heart. It is what keeps me alive.”

“You have the right to chose your destiny, otherwise you will be left to live someone else's idea of what your life should be.”

“Quentin Crisp (to handsome young man on the street): "What's the matter, sexy? Don't you like dehydrated fruit?”

“But even if you have what everyone else wants- if it isn't what you want, it isn't what you want”