“I always found myself in the company of Australians, who were like a reminder that I'd touched bottom.”

“It was easy not to like the other foreigners. I wondered how I'd fallen in with such a band of freaks. There were so many odd, wandering types--a host of bent Australians, warped British, tainted Canadians, tormented runaway Americans. (I considered myself fairly well balanced among this cast, but then look what became of me.) I'd expected it to a certain degree, but I was still surprised. Most of them seemed like misfits. Only a few content. But all of us found teaching work with astounding ease. It didn't matter that, on the whole, we were ragged and suspect because the demand for English in Korea was so great that almost anyone was accepted.”

“But like many who are lonely, I was more preoccupied with others than were those who lived to socialize...Everyone I hated was always with me, even when I was alone. They had to be, for I had to remember what and why I hated in order to remind myself to stay away from them.”

“I touch my scar to remind myself that I am not a coward. I am a Quinn.”

“I found myself both touched and irritated by the discovery that she was vulnerable.”

“I found myself jealous of the people who wrote the books. They were dead and they were still taking up my time. Who did they think they were?”