"Lovers bring gifts to the beloved, gold and precious stones. This instant my love brought me the greatest gift of all. 'Open your hand,' he said... and placed in it a little white feather with specks of grey and black. I looked at him silent and uncomprehending. (10)"
"We were alone, locked in a desolate city of the dead, and the terror in me grew violent. I looked at his paleness, his frail, shuddering body pitted against a universe full of malice, and I asked myself, what chance he had of surviving this heaviness, of emerging from this dead world. (11-12)"
"Duplicity is an art raised even to the status of philosophy... the artist raises a screen and takes pleasure in playing games with his audience. (13)"
"Veiling your beliefs from the eyes of the vulgar is an act of self-preservation, thus avoiding the jealousy of men and gods. (13)"
"Does one sell his life for a poem? Or for a glimpse of water lilies in a pond? (17)"
"My vision is too limited to grasp the depth of her anguish and the fires that burn underneath. She can spread desolation around her with the same intensity as she does joy. I perceive the political animal behind the waif and the artist, but it is only at rare moments that she shines with a zeal for the cause... It is a martyr's zeal, which frightens me. What do I know of this glittering creature, for wherever I turn, only the top of the iceberg is revealed. (18)"
"Today I took leave of my double, 'Alex the Bad'. I banished him to the darkest corner of my being, where he will find no peace. I shall let him slumber in the deep with his sinister thoughts and heinous deeds. Today I have broken unwritten laws, not of my making, all because I took pity on 'Alex the Good' and his chagrin d'amour. (19)"
"He asked me to be careful of the written word, for words can invoke unknown forces. He implored me to be sparing, for he knew the magic power of the word. (25)"
