I miss being a student, " said Abdul Wahid. "I miss the passionate discussions with my friends, and most of all the hours among the books.

We are all small-minded people, creeping about the earth grubbing for our own advantage and making the very mistakes for which we want to humiliate our neighbors.

Only sometimes when we pick and choose among the rules we discover later that we have set aside something precious in the process.

...as I get older, I find myself insisting on my right to be philosophically sloppy.

The human race is all the same when it comes to romantic relations, ' said the Major. 'A startling absence of impulse control combined with complete myopia.

...I tell myself it does not matter what one reads--favorite authors, particular themes--as long as we read something. It is not even important to own the books.

You Anglo-Saxons have largely broken away from such dependence on family. Each generation feels perfectly free to act alone and you are not afraid.

Memories were like tomb paintings, thought the Major, the colors still vivid no matter how many layers of mud and sand time deposited. Scrape at them and they come up all red and blazing.

Look, the truth belongs to the guy who's best at sticking to his story, ' said Ferguson.

Who's possessing who now, Casper?

I always believe in the magical things ...if you don't believe, you can't receive.

All we must do is take small steps. Steps with the belief that someday, all those small steps will culminate into a giant leap, a fitting finale.

Shame produces trauma. Trauma produces paralysis.

Ours is the first generation that has grown up with science-fiction ideas.

When I was a teenager, my dad used to put a lot of pressure on me to be successful, and I'd really beat myself up about things like losing martial arts competitions.

To drink away sorrow.

Condemning others as bad or sinful is a way to feel righteous. Such a feeling is a powerful mood alteration and can become highly addictive.

To savour Istanbul's back streets, to appreciate the vines and trees that endow its ruins with accidental grace, you must, first and foremost, be a stranger to them.

I procrastinate so much and I get distracted by anything.