We should be wrong to demand that a critic must stay on the point all the time; it is enough if he remains in orbit around it. - Kingsley Amis

I told myself that I could soon start to relish the state of being alone […], only to find as usual that I was stuck with myself.[…] Two's company, which is bad enough in all conscience, but one's a crowd.

Your attitude measures up to the two requirements of love. You want to go to bed with her and can't, and you don't know her very well. Ignorance of the other person topped up with deprivation, Jim. You fit the formula all right, and what's more you want to go on fitting it.

'You're still the same girl. What people do doesn't change their nature.'
She shook her head.[…] 'What they do is their nature,' she said.