If there was a sweet Jesus and if there was a God, the God was AM. - Harlan Ellison

Now he had form and substance. He had become a personality, something they had filtered out of the system many decades ago. But there it was, and there he was, a very definitely imposing personality. In certain circles — middle-class circles — it was thought disgusting. Vulgar ostentation. Anarchistic. Shameful.

He stopped and spun on her. “Do you think I’m a virgin? I’m not a virgin.”
His vehemence pulled her back from the edge of boldness. “No, of course you’re not. I never thought such a thing.” Then she said, “Well…I am.”
“Sorry,” he said, because he didn’t know the right thing to say, if there was a right thing.
“Not your fault,” she said. Which was the right thing to say.

“No one should ever be judged heartless because he tended to his own personal survival,” she said.