“She is a wiry blanched creature with no beauty. Her expression reminds him of a crumpled letter there is both sadness and anger in it.”

“He likes to think of himself as someone who can give quick clever answers to awkward questions. It is an important part of his self-esteem.”

“The act of creation, the impetus to undertake it, is always some kind of feeble attempt to understand ones own creation, the nature of creation itself.”

“Today she feels she is the master of her craft. Today she is free of the grinding tyranny of doubt. The voice that mocks her ambition. The voice that bites and slanders and causes her more heartach...”

“Artists, like criminals, are dependent on a jury.”

“Esme skips on ahead. Jumping from one foot to the other, as if she can see markings on the ground he cant. She is constantly jumping and skipping and twirling with the lightness of falling snow, lo...”

“With a secret like that, at some point the secret itself becomes irrelevant. The fact that you kept it does not.”

“Then Cassie told her story. The feeling was like gathering up everything she's ever done or felt or known up to that moment and tying it into a ball and pitching it with all her might as far away a...”

“Every woman needs secrets,' her mother said with a smile then, her eyes meeting Sally's in the rearview mirror. 'Remember that when you're old like me, pumpkin, because the world has a way of makin...”