“It is as though she was a phantom watching from the shadows. This at least is how she 'writes' herself: as an absence on which others projected their desires and anxieties.”

“...she gave him all the love she could not give herself. She loved him becasue he was the embodiment of those attributes she wanted for herself...”

“In her writings, she despises her fellow man and woman for representing what she had lost.”

“The only time she felt excited or happy was when she had had a drink because then anything might happen. That feeling of insecurity became exciting.”

“She could make excuses to keep the fantasy intact.”

“But nothing could touch her because there was nothing to touch.”

“Why do men so often filter out the detail when they tell personal stories Do they think it’s the way to draw out the universality Women know better. It’s detail unique detail which more truly does so providing points of divergence and comparison coincidence and dissonance throwing a slanting light on the idiopathic features of our own lives to bring out long weighty shadows of universal human meaning.”