Marathe and Kate at Ryle's — "But still, something about her moved…"
‘But still, something about her moved you to fall madly in love. Her gratitude and humility and acceptance and that kind of quiet dignity really horribly handic—birth-defected people usually have.’ ‘It was not mad. I had already chosen. The unclamping of the brakes of the fauteuil and schüssching to the Autoroute—this was the love. I had chosen loving her above my lost legs and this half a self.’
Context
The scene's thesis-exchange. Kate reaches for the sentimental American script about the disabled and audibly swallows it mid-word — "horribly handic—birth-defected," the sensitivity-flinch performed live — and Marathe's answer relocates love entirely: not a feeling caused by her qualities but the brake-release itself, chosen before he ever saw what was under the metal hat. Love-as-choice, with a deformed body as its object and its proof.