“Marriage, she felt, was a fine arrangement generally, except that one never got it generally. One got it very, very specifically.”

“Through college she had been a feministbasically: she shaved her legs, but just not often enough, she liked to say.”

“The night before, a whole day could have shape and design. But when it was upon you, it could vanish tragically to air.”

“It was true. Men could be with whomever they pleased. But women had to date better, kinder, richer, and bright, bright, bright, or else people got embarrassed.”

“What makes humans human is precisely that they do not know the future. That is why they do the fateful and amusing things they do: who can say how anything will turn out? Therein lies the only hope...”

“This lunge at moral fastidiousness was something she'd noticed a lot in people around here. They were not good people. They were not kind. But they recycled their newspapers!”

“Men of lofty genius when they are doing the least work are most active.”

“Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius.”

“There's a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line.”