“Let us be moved, you and I, by the things themselves. Let us discover each other.”

“Koschei smiled. His pale lips sought hers, crushing her into a kiss like dying. She tasted sweetness there, as though he still kissed her with honey and sugar on his tongue. When he pulled away, his eyes shone."I don't care, Marya Morevna. Kiss him. Take him to your bed, and the vila, too, for all it matters to me. Do you understand me, wife? There need never be any rules between us. Let us be greedy together; let us hoard. Let us hit each other with birch branches and lock each other in dungeons; let us drink each other's blood in the night and betray each other in the sun. Let us lie and lust and take hundreds of lovers; let us dance until snow melts beneath us. Let us steal and eat until we grow fat and roll in the pleasures of life, clutching each other for purchase. Only leave me my death — let me hold this one thing sacred and unmolested and secret — and I will serve you a meal myself, served on a platter of all the world's bounty. Only do not leave me, swear that you will never leave me, and no empress will stand higher. Forget the girls in the factory. Be selfish and cruel and think nothing of them. I am selfish. I am cruel. My mate cannot be less than I. I will have you in my hoard, Marya Morevna, my black mirror.”

“Let each of us lead a revolution of support in the lives of others.”

“Let us touch each otherwhile we still have hands,palms, forearms, elbows . . .Let us love each other for misery,torture each other, torment,disfigure, maim,to remember better,to part with less pain.”

“Nature has endowed each of us with a capacity for kindly feelings: let us not squander them on others.”

“Let us consider that we are all insane. It will explain us to each other. It will unriddle many riddles”