“I,astonish,Death,with,my,largesse. She,becomes,a,silly,maid,Saying, “Never,mind. Never,mind.”

“Valancy herself had never quite relinquished a certain pitiful, shamed, little hope that Romance would come her way yet—never, until this wet, horrible morning, when she wakened to the fact that she was twenty-nine and unsought by any man. Ay, there lay the sting. Valancy did not mind so much being an old maid. After all, she thought, being an old maid couldn’t possibly be as dreadful as being married to an Uncle Wellignton or an Uncle Benjamin, or even an Uncle Herbert. What hurt her was that she had never had a chance to be anything but an old maid.”

“I never think of myself as an icon. What is in other people's minds is not in my mind. I just do my thing.”

“My mind and gut are never simpatico: Every time I think somebody likes me, she doesn't; every time I think somebody doesn't like me, she does. This has never changed and I'm certain it never will.”

“One can never be as naked, as exposed, in the flesh as one becomes in the mind”

“terror finally becomes almost bearable but never quiteterror creeps like a cat crawls like a cat across my mind”