“Vesper felt herself turning red with humiliation. Then she looked at Allegrareally looked at her. Maybe shed had such a problem with people not seeing her because she wasnt seeing them. Did Allegra...”

“To him, she was one of the few girls who was nice to him, the stodgy son of a poor alcoholic shoemaker with such little status that he seemed unlikely to even get one wife, let alone the three or m...”

“Nim looked aghast. Of course not. Do you think my future wife would be a servant? Noits Number Seven of the wives. Her name is Begonia.Oh, no, Nim, Vesper said. You cant fall for one of the wives! ...”

“For everything about him fitting her fantasy image of what she wanted, she still didnt feel seen by himand that made her all the more aware that maybe her fantasy wasnt what she wanted at all.”

“Happily-ever-after monogamy has been reinforced so steadily in literature that we tend to feel like failures when we dont achieve that in reality.”

“Shed never spoken to anyone before of this business of being seen, loved for who she was; to have it voiced by this man shed just met sent chills down her spine.”

“Believe that fate is smiling to you and everything you touch will turn into gold”

“Self-fulfilling prophecy always come to pass”

“Words are spiritual forces.”

“Romance is the deepest thing in life. It is deeper than reality.”

“when you're a kid, they tell you that it's what's on the inside that counts. Looks don't matter . But that's not true. Guys like Phoebus in The Hunchback, or Dorian, or the old Kyle Kingsbury-- the...”

“Every concept of reality is all in our head, belief is what makes truth.”

“Thinking is the hardest work anyone can do, which is probably the reason why we have so few thinkers. ”

“Perhaps the logical conclusion of everyone looking the same is everyone thinking the same.”

“I could not think without writing.”