"She is, Althea thought uneasily, what I pretend to be: a woman who does not let her sex deter her from living as she pleases."
"Do you not see how strange and wonderful that is? That all history balances on an affair of the human heart?"
"They were all gone now, broken or taken by people who had no idea what such items represented. Let them go. She held the past in her heart, with no need of physical items to tie it down."
"There was, she suddenly saw, many ways to be raped."
"I don't want to have these burdens. But I can't bear to turn them over to anyone else, either. Because, despite all the work, I like being in control of my own life."
"Why not break free now, and make Bingtown a place where folk begin anew, all men standing on an equal footing?""And all women, too."She must be Sparse's daughter, thought Keffria. Even her voice echoed his in tone. Devouchet looked at her in surprise."It was but a manner of speaking, Ekke," he said mildly."A manner of speaking becomes a manner of thinking."