Someone, somewhere, made the carnitas, and I’ve never inquired too closely about it since certain phenomena cannot withstand plodding questioning.

The last time I’d seen her she had shown traces of doubt. Now you could hear her heart like a clock, ticking away the time she spent on you.

“she just never had anything to lose before.” Thank heaven the privileges of beauty are not that enormous.

If it’s going to be unfair, I want to have it all.

Japan is supposed to be subtle, to place value on the discreet.

I’d never been able to stand Terry. Terry was someone who assumed the privileges of beauty only he was not. One of the privileges is that you can be cruel, and with him this cruelty and misery were so pronounced it reminded you of what beauty could get away with.

Cocteau said death was the mirror.

“The privileges of beauty,” Jean Cocteau said, “are enormous.”

Beauty, unlike money, seems unable to focus on the source of the power. Even talent knows they are special and why they were invited.