“To kiss and to kill are similar words to eyes that focus with difficulty.”

“She would have liked to sit upon a rock and listen to words, not of any man, but detached, mysterious, poetic words that she alone would interpret through some sense inherited from sleep.”

“He himself, he realized, had always been most abominably frightened, even at the height of his divine power, a frail god upon a rickety throne, afraid of opening letters, of making decisions, afraid of the instinctive knowledge in the eyes of mules, of the innocent eyes of good men, of the elastic nature of the passions, even of the devotion he had received from some men, and one woman, and dogs.”

“Because he had nothing to hide, he did perhaps appear to have forfeited a little of his strength. But that is the irony of honesty.”

“To understand the stars would spoil their appearance.”

“Human relationships are vast as deserts: they demand all daring, she seemed to suggest. ”

“I expect we are all jealous of the women in their past, but how much less exciting if the women had not kept the bed warm.”