“She fixed him with a long careful, searching stare that was not devoid of irony's intelligent sparkle”

“She knew, of course that she was being supremely unfair, that Franz was the best man she ever had- he was intelligent, he understood her paintings, he was handsome and good-but the more she thought about it, the more she longed to ravish his intelligence, defile his kindheartedness, and violate his powerless strength”

“And there lies the horror: the past we remember is devoid of time. Impossible to reexperience a love the way we reread a book or resee a film.”

“nothing yet. I've been waiting.""for what?"she made no response. she could not tell him that she had been waiting for him.”

“She was in the grip of an insuperable longing to fall. She lived in a constant state of vertigo. “Pick me up”, is the message of a person who keeps falling.”

“On the surface, an intelligible lie; underneath, the unintelligible truth.”

“Beauty in the European sense has always had a premeditated quality to it. We've always had an aesthetic intention and a long-range plan. That's what enabled western man to spend decades building a Gothic cathedral or a Renaissance piazza. The beauty of New York rests on a completely different base. It's unintentional. It arose independent of human designt, like a stalagmitic cavern. Forms which in themselves quite ugly turn up fortuitously, without design, in such incredible surroundings that they sparkle with with a sudden wondrous poetry...Sabina was very much attracted by the alien quality of New York's beauty. Fran found it intriguing but frightening; it made him feel homesick for Europe. ”