I suppose we ought to be getting home, in any case.”“Oh god, is it wartime already?”“Look on the bright side: it’ll be dinner when we get back.

Life took longer to reassemble than it did to blow apart, but that didn't mean it wouldn't be lovely, providing that one remembered to go for country walks, and to tune the wireless to music.

One could always imagine that one's life, though smoldering in parts, might be undamaged in the west.

But what good is it to teach a child to count, if you don't show him that he counts for something?

They spoke of small things at first, since it was best, when reattaching threads, to begin with the easiest knots.

People spoke in whispers, as if the war was listening

She knew, now, why her father had not spoken of the last war, nor Alistair of his. It was hardly fair on the living.

The first problem of war was that no one was any good at it yet.

Then I’m tempted to die just to … spite him.”“That’s the spirit that will win us the war.

There in the sweet sacking smell of the mail bags he understood that he was dying, and it pleased him that he was going in the company of so many soft words home.

Everything can be restored. If one won't believe that, how does one endure all this?

an incredibly beautiful read

The cameras were electronic monsters, moving with them as they walked and staring with one big, perverted eye.

Life it too short to deal with crazy people.

Uncles and aunts, and cousins, are all very well, and fathers and mothers are not to be despised; but a grandmother, at holiday time, is worth them all.

The 'almighty dollar' is the true divinity, and its worship is universal.

The elevator to success is broken, take the stairs.

A man who wants to control his animal passions easily does so if he controls his palate.

Sweden is a small country, and a Swedish writer can barely make a living as an author. We were able to quit our jobs as journalists only after we had been translated into, among others, German.

Dependency is death to initiative, to risk-taking and opportunity.

When every day seems the same, it is because we have stopped noticing the good things that appear in our lives.