“Soon, the two of them would leave this spot. . . walk into the house and into a whole changed world. . . ”

“He would drift through the house in search of the coolest spot to read through the long summer afternoons that had a touch of eternity to them, altering the arrangement of his limbs as much for comfort as for the fear that his undisturbed shadow would leave a stain on the wall.”

“The young writer should learn to spot them: words that at first glance seem freighted with delicious meaning, but that soon burst in the air, leaving nothing but a memory of bright sound.”

“She is a girl and would not be afraid to walk the whole world with herself.”

“It felt as though they were the only people in the world, two young women about to bury the symbol of their helplessness, as if that's all it would take to make them whole again.”

“Cleopatra's nose, had it been shorter, the whole face of the world would have been changed.”