"That was the poetry of his life. In reality it had all been women accusing him of stifling their creativity and walking out on him." Part 1, One, page 4

"Was it better then- measuring the loss- not to know happiness at all? Better to go through life waiting for what never came, because that way you had less to mourn? Could that be why Treslove so often found himself alone? Was he protecting himself against the companioned happiness he longed for because he dreaded how he would feel when it was taken from him? Or was the loss he dreaded precisely the happiness he craved?" Part 1, One, page 15

"In fact, Treslove's intuition that Finkler no longer wanted to be thought a Finkler was the right one... What Treslove couldn't have understood was that the Finkler name still meant something even if the Finkler idea didn't. By staying Finkler, Finkler...