"It took more than a few years of life in Buenos Aires before he began to realize that the existence of an exile did not make for simplicity—so many documents, so many visits to government offices. Simplicity belonged by right to those who were native-born, those who could take the conditions of life"
"how easily sexual attention can be caught by something superficial, like a birth-mark in an unusual position."
"There was something clinical in a brothel which appealed to Doctor Plarr. It was as though he were watching a surgeon accompanying a new patient to the operating theatre - the previous operation had been successful and was already out of mind. Only in Television dramas did emotions of love, anxiety "
"In a real love affair, he thought, you are interested in a woman because she is someone distinct from yourself; then bit by bit she adapts herself to you, she picks up your habits, your ideas, even your turns of phrase, she becomes part of you, and then what interest remains? One cannot love oneself"
"Eating food side by side seemed more intimate to Doc Plarr than the sexual act. ... ... it opened an unexpected vista into quite another sort of life, a domestic life equally strange to both of them. It was as though he had taken a boat down one of the small tributaries of the Parana and suddenly fo"
"of course i was acting. I always try to do what you like. I always try to say what you like. Yes. Just like at Senora Sanchez. Why not? You have your machismo too." He half believed her. He wanted to believe her. If she were speaking the truth there might be something still to discover, the game was"