| A: Moving arms? | GUN RUNNING |
| B: Non-zero-sum interaction | WIN WIN SITUATION |
| C: "Two columns hide a message" or "What is the source of the quotation", for example | HINT |
| D: Arthurian author | T H WHITE |
| E: Between radio and infrared | MICROWAVE |
| F: Its municipal buildings are called Hales | HONOLULU |
| G: Word S, for example | UNGULATE |
| H: Like some tea | UNSWEETENED |
| I: Like Alice after eating cake | ENLARGED |
| J: Duties | RESPONSIBILITIES |
| K: UT Arlington newspaper | THE SHORTHORN |
| L: DC newspaper | THE HILL |
| M: Abid Hamid Mahmud | ACE OF DIAMONDS |
| N: Object with a 5.38 km long spiral etched on it | COMPACT DISC |
| O: Lisper's favorite punctuation | PARENTHESIS |
| P: Musical set in New York | RENT |
| Q: Buchanan or Trudeau, for example | FIFTEENTH |
| R: Not alphabetized | DISORDERED |
| S: Dangerous type of G | HIPPOPOTAMUS |
| T: He silenced the nightingales of Otford | THOMAS BECKET |
| U: One of the Khoikhoi | HOTTENTOT |
| V: Musical set in New York | ON THE TOWN |
| W: Feature of anatidae | WEBBED FEET |
| X: Toy that's hard to throw away | BOOMERANG |
| Y: Marge's engagement jewelry | ONION RING |
| Z: Scarlett word | FIDDLE-DEE-DEE |
The quotation consists of eight quotations from T. S. Eliot's Four Quartets. Guided by clue C, the first answer is FOUR QUARTETS.
In the ninth and eighteenth columns (the only two columns without black squares), look at the letters of the clues to spell out THE ERMINE OF WOMAN'S SOUL TO Q. E. I. This clues the answer CHASTITY.
The eight quotations are the 16th, 18th, 5th, 18th, 9th, 14th, 19th and 5th lines of the quartets (two from each quartet). Converting numbers to letters in the usual way spells the answer PRERINSE.