Nora had the face of all people who love the people – a face that would be evil when she found out that to love without criticism is to be betrayed. … - Djuna Barnes

To love without criticism is to be betrayed.

Nightwood is demanding. You can slide into it, because the prose has a narcotic quality, but you can’t slide over it. The language is not about conveying information; it is about conveying meaning.

"Sometimes to be utterly innocent," he went on, "would be to be utterly unknown, particularly to oneself."

There goes the dismantled — Love has fallen off her wall. A religious woman,” he thought to himself, “without the joy and safety of the Catholic faith, which at a pinch covers up the spots on the wall when the family portraits take a slide; take that safety from a woman,” he said to himself, quickening his step to follow her, “and love gets loose and into the rafters. She sees her everywhere,” he added, glancing at Nora as she passed into the dark. “Out looking for what she’s afraid to find — Robin. There goes mother of mischief, running about, trying to get the world home.