"Seen from the air, the city seems perfectly homogeneous. Nothing suggests to the stranger that he is nearing a region where two political continents collide." Chapter 1, pgs. 3-4.

"This stillness probably ties in with the Germans' habit of hearing their own noise through their neighbors' ears—a consideration which even three-year-olds are taught to show." Chapter 1, pg. 16.

"Since queries about his impressions of the West were usually tied to the hope that he would pledge allegiance to a Western life-style, he preferred instead to hunt for a no-man's-land between the borders. 'If it's either Erna or Rita,' he would say, 'I won't take either; I'd rather jerk off.'" Chapter 1, pg. 21.

"By comparison, the state to the West, which claimed to be a society, seemed to be far more violent and powerful, invisible but omnipresent. It had crept in through the cracks in apartment doors, crept...