“She was transparent, like a watercolor. As if she were about to dissolve in sound, in tones not yet created.”

“Watching a make-out while wrapped in a blanket with a guy she wanted to make out with made her feel exposed. Obvious. Transparent. Like her thoughts were flashing before his eyes.Finally Brett managed to pull away without consent of Bekka's lips. The confusion created a sloppy bite-a-juicy-peach sound. Everyone cringed.”

“The astounding thing about Paula is that she looks like Tess of the D´Urbervilles, and she sounds like Tess of the D´Urbervilles, and she thinks like Tess of the D´Urbervilles and yet she is so different from Tess of the D´Urbervilles. I expect she comes from a different part of Dorset.”

“She was trying to sound tough and impatient, but she knew that vulnerable desire to be wooed was still brimming in her tone.”

“The sound she is making is the sound hearts make after they're inpieces and the fragments dissolve into the overwhelming sadness of theuniverse. The power to hear it may be the only privilege of thethoroughly dispossessed.”

“But then she often felt like this lately. The world seemed full of transparent frauds that only she could see through. She was forever shouting from the hustings of honesty, though if any honesty were directed at her she ran from it horrified. And she knew it, laughed at herself for it, wretchedly. She was all to pieces.”