“Slowly I learnt the ways of humans: how to ruin, how to hate, how to debase, how to humiliate. And at the feet of my Master I learnt the highest of human skills, the skill no other creature owns: I finally learnt how to lie.”

“Victor: What does it feel like to be in love?Creature: It feels like everything is boiling over and spilling out of me; it feels like my lungs are on fire, and my heart is a hammer, and I feel like I can do anything...I feel like I can do anything in the world...”

“The more I read, the more I learn, the more I discover that I know nothing.”

“It is brilliant, and I would swoon if I knew how. Perhaps I learnt the art but it was long ago, and I've forgotten, It is merely one of a number of feminine skills I lack.”

“I wondered just how much of her I'd invented. Had I only mastered some skill for awing myself? Or would this creature, Camilla, like a settler's incessant New World, keep increasing my capacity not only to marvel but to marvel at myself in the face of her?”

“I have learnt how to live…how to be in the world and of the world, and not just to stand aside and watch.”

“I learned from Hussain how to be wronged and be a winner, I learnt from Hussain how to attain victory while being oppressed.”