“Or you just not ask her.””You might as well slit my throat.”

“Misha, my best friend who got me into bed and fucked me with a lie.”

“Oh, aye. I’m the devil all right. And last night, you were begging to step into the fire.”

“Good luck, Oretsev. Find the firebird, and when this is over, I’ll see you well rewarded. A farmhouse in Udova. A dacha near the city. Whatever you want.””I don’t need any of that. Just…” He dropped Nikolai’s hand and looked away. “Deserve her.”

“He pulled away the glove, and at the first glimpse of her fragile, white hand, all thoughts of negotiation fled. “I don’t see how matters could become worse,” he muttered. “I am already besotted with a needle-tongued, conceited, provoking ape leader of a lady.”Her head jerked up. “Besotted? You’re nothing like it. Vengeful is more like it. Spiteful.”

“You ought to be blowing me kisses, wench.”

“Indelible, adj.That first night, you took your finger and pointed to the top of my head, then traced a line between my eyes, down my nose, over my lips, my chin, my neck, to the center of my chest. It was so surprising. I knew I would never mimic it. That one gesture would be yours forever.”

“I’ll support whatever you decide. I’llhelp you any way I can. What’s mine isyours, okay? If you need something, I’ll make sure you have it, however I have to get it. — Jason Dorsey”

“He took in the squeaky music, the vulgar and pining melodies, because passion immobilizes good taste and seriously considers what soberly would be thought of as funny and to be resented.”

“He had taken George, my beloved George, from me. And he had taken my other self: Anne.”

“It took me two years to give him all of my heart, and he threw it away in one night.”

“I looked at him like a stranger, someone I’d never seen before, and he looked at me like I’d been lost to him for a thousand years and finally found.”

“I knew you read the Symposium in the vac,” he said in a low voice.Maurice felt uneasy.”Then you understand – without me saying more – “”How do you mean?”Durham could not wait. People were all around them, but with eyes that had gone intensely blue he whispered, “I love you.”

“She was an exotic flower amongst the snowdrifts, out of place, a Technicolor misfit in a monochrome Christmas movie.”

“See me just as I see you.”