“Because we are separated everything separates us, even our efforts to join each other.”

“The misfortune is that although everyone must come to [death], each experiences the adventure in solitude. We never left Maman during those last days... and yet we were profoundly separated from her.”

“Two separate beings, in different circumstances, face to face in freedom and seeking justification of their existence through one another, will always live an adventure full of risk and promise." (p. 248)”

“The curse which lies upon marriage is that too often the individuals are joined in their weakness rather than in their strength, each asking from the other instead of finding pleasure in giving. It is even more deceptive to dream of gaining through the child a plenitude, a warmth, a value, which one is unable to create for oneself; the child brings joy only to the woman who is capable of disinterestedly desiring the happiness of another, to one who without being wrapped up in self seeks to transcend her own existence.”

“...which we welcomed precisely because it happened to suit our convenience.”

“Women's mutual understanding comes from the fact that they identify themselves with each other; but for the same reason each is against the others.”

“A couple who go on living together merely because that was how they began, without any other reason: was that what we were turning into?”