“... Full of old cockatoos who used to be rich and aren't any longer, but they cling to yesterday tooth and nail, preferring to live on bread and sardines rather than sell what little they have left of their faded glory.”

“My day had already had a good dose of bitterness, and I preferred to keep it from getting any sadder.”

“One of the effects of being crazily, obsessively in love is that it dulls your senses, your capacity for perception, till you no longer notice what is happening around you.”

“My fear didn't want to be left behind, so it came with me.”

“And yet for that, blood is thicker than water, even if the only thing you've shared with your people have been hardships and miseries.”

“All those invisible presences ... began to transform themselves into companions that were more or less volatile, more or less intense, companions that I'd have to learn to live with. They invaded my mind when I was alone, in the silent evenings toiling away in the workshop between patterns and bastings, when I went to bed or in the gloom of the living room ...”

“Normality wasn't in the days I'd left behind me: it was only to be found in whatever fortune placed in my path each morning.”