"In those early days when she was working in small parts her stupidity started to melt; she had not in the least attempted to overcome her stupidity, but she now saw, with the confidence of practice in her film roles, that she had somehow circumvented it. She did not need to be clever, she only had to exist; she did not need to perform, she only had to be there in front of the cameras." Ch. 1, pg. 10

"But, in a way, he was hypnotized by a sense of the enormity of her deception, the more her reputation grew and she accepted it as part of her rightful earnings. Whenever any of his old friends began to suggest that her acting had some depth, or charm, or special merit, he silently nurtured the atrocity, reminding himself that nobody but he could know how shallow she really was." Ch. 1, pg...