“She felt like a bad actress in a play she never wanted to be in.”

“she was such a bad actress. she never said her lines rite, it was something perverse in her nature. and wat was her line anyway?”

“That’s what she was, Joanna felt suddenly. That’s what they all were, all the Stepford wives: actresses in commercials, pleased with detergents and floor wax, with cleansers, shampoos, and deodorants. Pretty actresses, big in the bosom but small in the talent, playing housewives unconvincingly, too nicey-nice to be real.”

“No, nothing much had changed in the old neighborhood. She was still just an actress in someone else’s play.”

“What keeps me interested--and it always does--is how can she be a bad actress on film but a good one in reality?”

“The other girls in the village never felt restless. Nhamo was like a pot of boiling water. 'I want...I want...,' she whispered to herself, but she didn't know what she wanted and she had no idea how to find it. ”