Maître Susane knew she didn’t need Sharon’s energy, youth, or abilities, she knew full well that those virtues were wasted in her apartment, where there was literally nothing to do.

He felt as though the psychologist had uncovered a secret about him and was waiting until this day to tell him.

 Life without God’s love is like a donut, ’cause there’s a hole in the middle of your heart!

I swam fast toward the rocks—the sting of a jellyfish couldn’t be worse than listening to him go on about his mother.’

Nothing is more flattering to an artist than the illusion that he is a secret revolutionary. 

On and off, from the slit in my blinds, I observed him, some other dude, and a lady with a broad, shaking rump who I guessed to be his mother carrying things out of the house: boxes, TVs, something covered in a baby blanket. I felt lame for wanting to be acknowledged in some way, for watching him shut them all in the van without looking back.

Aunt Satchie’s house is Victorian, which means it’s like a church exploded and got put back together in a slapdash, with little domes and steeples.

John and Sylvia fell asleep watching the movie and so they never learned the secret of Rebecca.