“He was well aware that of the two of three thousand times he had made love (how many times had he made love in his life?) only two or three were really essential and unforgettable. The rest were mere echoes, imitations, repetitions, or reminiscences.”

“One million fifty-one thousand and two hundred minutes That's approximatley how many minutes I've loved youIt's how many times i've thought about youHow many minutes i've worried about youHow many minutes i've thanked God for youHow many minutes i've thanked every deity in the universe for you.One millionFifty-one ThousandAndTwoHundredMinutesOne million fifty-one thousand amd two hundred times.It's how many times you've made me smile.How many times you've made me dream,How many times you've made me believe,How many times you've made me discover,How many times you've made me adore,How many times you've made me cheris, My life.....And exactlly one million fifty-one thousand and two hundred minutes from now, i am going to propose to you, and ask that you share all the rest of the minutesOf your life, with me.”

“He had known in times of the greatest misery or danger that his dreams of home, in which all things seemed beautiful, were in essence his longing for the woman for whom he had been made. That was how, as a soldier, he had seen it, and it was how he had come through.”

“Of course, true love is exceptional - two or three times a century, more or less. The rest of the time there is vanity or boredom.”

“They made love then. Kassad, at twenty-three standard years, had been in love once and had enjoyed sex many times. He thought he knew the way and the why of it. There was nothing in his experience to that moment which he could not have described with a phrase and a laugh to his squadmates in the hold of a troop transport. With the calm, sure cynicism of a twenty-three-year-old veteran he was sure that he would never experience anything that could not be so described, so dismissed. He was wrong. He could never adequately share the sense of the next few minutes with anyone else. He would never try.”

“I'm going to marry him. And if he thinks he can get divorced and married every two or three years in the approved Hollywood fashion, well, he never made a bigger mistake in his life. He's going to marry and stick to me.”