“Goddesses don't need last names." Valentina, "Goddess”

“I don't have a past, only a future." Valentina, "Goddess”

“Her smile was hesitant and flickering, the smile of a girl who does not know her fate. But when she raised her head, her eyes were surprisingly bold... the eyes of a woman no man had as yet taken into account. ”

“She had defeated loneliness by bringing to life the books that peopled her imagination and making friends of them.With devastating clarity she saw that her ability was not only a panacea for unhappiness. It was her lifeblood. Part of the very fiber of her being. And here, in Hollywood, it could be fulfilled. She didn't want to be an actress. She was one. All she had to do to be a star was to be true to herself.”

“You think I'm not a goddess?Try me.This is a torch song.Touch me and you'll burn.”

“America without her Soldiers would be like God without His angels.”

“The willow is full plumage and is no help, with its insinuating whispers.Rendevous, it says. Terraces;the sibilants run up my spine, a shiver as if in fever. The summer dress rustles against the flesh of my thighs, the grass grows underfoot, at the edges of my eyes there are movements, in the branches; feathers, flittings, grace notes, tree into bird, metamorphosis run wild. Goddesses are possible now and the air suffuses with desire...Winter is not so dangerous. I need hardness, cold, rigidity; not this heaviness, as if I'm a melon on a stem, this liquid ripeness. ”