"It all came down to entitlement, and one's sense of it. Marina, feeling entitled, never really asked herself if she was good enough. Whereas he, Julius, asked himself repeatedly, answered always in the affirmative, and marveled at the wider world's apparent inability to see the light." Chap. 4, p. 33

"Or maybe that wasn't quite right: maybe Marina was so busy bucking herself up that she had forgotten, or never noticed, that she was standing on nothing, poised in the void." Chap. 6, p. 49

"I never told my daughter to become a writer. Quite the opposite. I figure, if you can do something else, do. Because it's a stimulating life, but an uncertain one. I did bring her up though to understand that integrity is everything, it's all you've got. And that if you have a voice, a gift, you're morally bound to exploit it." Chap. 7, p. 55

"It was like Zeon's...