“He was a man. Men always had lewd thoughts. It was perfectly natural and normal”

“The natural impulse of men is to follow, he thought, and whoever has the strongest sense of purpose will always dominate the rest.”

“Normal! He thought. Normal! I don't want things to be normal. Normal is always being left out, never belonging.”

“Normal. She wasn't normal. A girl Graced with killing, a royal thug? A girl who didn't want the husbands Randa pushed on her, perfectly handsome and thoughtful men, a girl who panicked at the thought of a baby at her breast, or clinging to her ankles.”

“People had a habit of looking at me as if I were some kind of mirror instead of a person. They didn't see me, they saw their own lewd thoughts, then they white-masked themselves by calling me the lewd one.”

“Of this she was perfectly unaware; to her he was only the man who had made himself agreeable nowhere, and who had not thought her handsome enough to dance with.”