…stones, even, are smoother for the dust. - Patrick White

Human relationships are vast as deserts: they demand all daring, she seemed to suggest.

She had begun to read in the beginning as a protection from the frightening and unpleasant things. She continued because, apart from the story, literature brought with it a kind of gentility for which she craved.

The worst thing about love between human beings is that when you are prepared to love them they don't want it; when they do its you who can't bear the idea.