“I swear I've never met a man who has your knack for lack of social grace. If you weren't naturally charming, someone would have stabbed you by now.”

“You are nothing like the others. You aren't like anyone I've ever met. I swear it. Now that I've had a taste of you, no one else will ever be enough for me. I need you...only you. Alex, you have my heart.”

“If it weren't for me inviting Meena Harper over for dinner that night, the two of you would never have met, and this whole horrible mess would never have happened..."She paused dramatically, as if waiting for someone to jump in and say, Oh no, Mary Lou. None of this was you fault."But," Mary Lou went on, a little less self-confidently, "if I hadnt then you, Lucien, would just have gone on through eternity never knowing what true love is. And then how would you have felt?""Considerably better than I've felt over the course of the past six months, I imagine," he replied.”

“The best moments in reading are when you come across something – a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things – which you had thought special and particular to you. Now here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out and taken yours.”

“I swear, I’ve never met any demon as annoying as you are.”“You haven’t met my youngest brother.”

“Breaking my neck was the best thing that ever happened to me. I have an Olympic medal. I've been to so many countries I would never have been, met so many people I would never have met. I've done more in the chair, ... than a whole hell of a lot of people who aren't in chairs.”