“I love what's left after love has been tested.”

“I'll say I love you,Which will lead, of course,to disappointment,but those words unsaidpoison every next moment.I will try to disappoint youbetter than anyone else has.”

“Altruism is for thosewho can't endure their desires.There's a worldas ambiguous as a moan,a pleasure moanour earnest neighborsmight think a crime.It's where we could live.I'll say I love you,Which will lead, of course,to disappointment,but those words unsaidpoison every next moment.I will try to disappoint youbetter than anyone else has.--Mon Semblable”

“He held her like a new womanand what she feltfelt almost as good as love had,and each of them called it lovebecause precision didn’t matter anymore.”

“Originality, of course, is what occurs when something new arises out of what's already been done.”

“ConnubialBecause with alarming accuracy she’d been identifying patterns I was unaware of—this tic, that tendency, like the way I've mastered the language of intimacy in order to conceal how I felt— I knew I was in danger of being terribly understood.”

“That time I thought I was in loveand calmly said sowas not much different from the timeI was truly in loveand slept poorly and spoke out loudto the walland discovered the hidden geniusof my handsAnd the times I felt less in love,less than someone,were, to be honest, not so differenteither.Each was ridiculous in its own wayand each was tender, yes,sometimes even the false is tender.I am astonishedby the various kisses we’re capable of.Each from different heightsdiminished, which is simply the law.And the big bruisefrom the long fall looked perfectly whitein a few years.That astounded me most of all.”