“He tossed back the last of the blood. "I'm going to be young forever. I can do anything I want. Drink as much as I want. Sleep with anyone. Live a life of debauchery. And I'll never change. I'm like Dorian Gray." His eyebrows knit together, and he thought for a moment. "Without all the homosexual undertones.”

“What is my life for and what am I going to do with it? I don't know and I'm afraid. I can never read all the books I want; I can never be all the people I want and live all the lives I want.”

“There was the moment-the moment I went back there for. That was the moment I knew that this man was going to change my life forever. Suddenly, I found myself wanting to change his.”

“I relish my debauchery. I don't regret it or shy away from it and pretend that I'm gonna stop it. This is who I am, and I'm not going to change for anyone.”

“That I love her, that I want her, that I'm never going anywhere, that she and I are going to last. That this is real. That it’s forever.”

“I have to know you'll be happy; have what you want,what you can live with. I want forever from you.""All right." Shelby lifted her hands to his wrists, holding them a moment before she backed away. "I considered the possibilties," she began. "I thought through all the ifs and the maybes.I didn't like all of them, but the one I hated the most was life without you. You're not going to play Parcheesi without me, MacGregor."His brow lifted. "I'm not?""No." She brushed at her bangs with another unsteady laugh. "Marry me, Alan. I won't agree with all your policies, but I'll try to be tactful in print-some of the time. I won't head any committees, and I'll only go to luncheons if there's no way out, but my own career's an understandable excuse for that. I won't give conventional parties, but I'll give interesting ones If you're willing to take the risk of setting me loose on world politics, who am I to argue?"He hadn't thought he could love her any more than he already did. He'd been wrong.”