“There are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before.”

“Isn’t it queer: there are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before; like the larks in this country, that have been singing the same five notes over for thousands of years.”

“I can't begin to guess her story, except that there were undoubtedly two times or three, when what had happened to her was grievously at odds with what she had expected - so grievously at odds that any return to the faith or the patterns of the time before the event became impossible.”

“Things happen once only and are never repeated, never return. Except in memory.”

“I had never felt such happiness, not with one man or two or three, never felt this feeling before...this feeling of...completeness? Yes, that was it, completeness! I simply didn't need anyone else.”

“Never more then two, I told her once. I repeat an old joke about why martinis are like a women's breasts; one is never enough and three are too many”