“She taught me not to block out ugliness by giving imagined beauty false dominion: but that on the other hand, in the midst of hatred and ugliness there is color, there is life, and there is ...personal usefullness... as well.”

“And beauty has a quality all of its own that seems supreme; that seems above mere men with slaving ships and pistols...”

“I try to clutch onto those last moments in the place that I was born to, but I was so busy *living* them! How was I to know I'd have to capture everything I ever wanted to remember of Eire for the rest of my life?”

“But though I tried, my days went by as if I was walking barefoot over sharp stones, whilst carrying a large tray laden with the finest crystal goblets. Fear and too much caution ...they'll make you stumble, sir. 'Tis just a matter of time.”

“To dance to fey music is the beginning of the end.”

“Had any poet adequately described the wretched ugliness of a loved one turned inside out with grief?”

“Well, I think it's possible to love someone and still be curious about someone else. And I think you should be able to act on that impulse without impunity. But in our society, where monogamy rules despite all the evidence that it doesn't work, a person is demonized for wanting to break from that traditional model of relationships. I think you can love someone, truly love someone, and still be drawn to someoneelse. Enough to want to kiss that other person, just to see what it would be like. Or maybe to help confirm that what you've got is better than what else is out there. Because isn't the desire alone a form of betrayal? So what further harm does it do to put those thoughts into action? Ideally, you would be able just to go back to the person you love after you've kissed that other person and discovered it wasn't asinteresting as you thought it would be, which I would imagine would be the case most of the time. And in the event that itis unexpectedly amazing, isn't it better to have experienced that moment of bliss rather than imagine what it could have been like?”