“The very rich only admire themselves”

“When I saw the rats the first time, I wanted to drop my basket where it was and run away, but we weren t rich enough for symbolic gestures. So I walked.”

“... and yet he could also be very charming, in a bookish, infinitely apologetic way.”

“He and I had already had our time, and though it was still very close and real to me, as beautiful and poignant as any place on a map, it was, in truth, another time—another country.”

“But when Bumby nursed, his fist clutching the fabric of my robe, his eyes soft and bottomless and locked on mine, as if I were the very heart of his universe, I couldn't help but melt into him.”

“Are you always this wise, Ruth?" "Only when it comes to other people's lives.”

“People belong to each other only as long as they both believe. He stopped believing.”