"Truly, I wish I were dead. She was weeping when she left me, and said many things to me, and said this: 'How much we have suffered, Sappho. Truly, I don't want to leave you.'"

"If you are squeamish, don't prod the beach rubble."

"I am weary of all your words and soft, strange ways."

"May I write words more naked than flesh, stronger than bone, more resilient than sinew, sensitive than nerve."

"Death must be an evil and the gods agree; for why else would they live for ever?"