"She decided she wanted a cool, starchy independent life, with ruffles of humor like window curtains."

"It struck her that becoming a Trotskyite had merely given him one more thing to be snobbish about. He now looked down…"

"'That was your day, Mother,' Dottie said patiently. 'Sacrifices aren't necessary any more. […] I've thought about thi…"

"There was a side of Sloan, she [Priss] had decided, that she mistrusted, a side that could be summed up by saying tha…"

"He would only come if she were unprepared. Or would he come only if she were prepared? With her lamp trimmed like the…"

"She [Polly] did not approve of revolutions, unless they were absolutely necessary, and she thought it peculiar, to sa…"

"All I knew that night was that I believed in something and couldn't express it, while your team believed in nothing b…"

"It struck her that Norine's apartment was all too populous with 'significant form.' Every item in it seemed to be say…"

"One of the big features of living alone was that you could talk to yourself all you wanted and address imaginary audi…"

"Polly saw the point. Would she wish not to have been born? Unhappy as she was, she could not say that. Even when she …"