Being Jem, Tessa reflected, must be a great deal like being the owner of a thouroughbred dog that liked to bite your guests. You had to have a hand on his collar constantly.

They say time heals all wounds, but that presumes the source of the grief is finite

She had loved him for such a long time, she thought. How was it that she did now know him at all?

wanting what you could not have led to misery and madness

Astriola. That IS demon pox. You had evidence that demon pox existed and you didnt mention it to me! Et tu, Brute!' He rolled up the paper and hit Jem over the head with it.

She had never imagined she had the power to make someone else so happy. And not a magical power, either--a purely human one.

I thought... that we could at least talk about books.

Lies and secrets, Tessa, they are like a cancer in the soul. They eat away what is good and leave only destruction behind.

Jem put the full force of himself into each smile, so that he seemed to be smiling with his eyes, his heart, his whole being.

You had to know a person well to make them laugh like that.

We live and breathe words.

The first qualification for a historian is to have no ability to invent.

Apologetics is reason flying to the rescue of faith

Although my father is English, I was brought up in Australia.

Memory narrativises itself.

Warm air holds more water vapor than cold, and so the atmosphere is about 4% wetter than it was 40 years ago. This loads the dice for flood and drought, and we're seeing both in stunning abundance.

Physical beauty is the sign of an interior beauty, a spiritual and moral beauty which is the basis, the principle, and the unity of the beautiful.

In real life, unlike in Shakespeare, the sweetness of the rose depends upon the name it bears. Things are not only what they are. They are, in very important respects, what they seem to be.

You can't totally rebel, otherwise you have to go live on your own, on a desert island. It's as simple as that.

Transport drives me crazy. I find myself on this constant conveyor belt and the planes, buses, traffic jams, ugh.

But it is the fear, not the writing that defeats me. Everything is not a masterpiece.