Soiled, forgotten coats of arms were carved above their massive doorways, and these unsettled Ted: such universal, defining symbols made meaningless by nothing more than time.

If I had a view like this to look down on every day, I would have the energy and inspiration to conquer the world. The trouble is, when you most need such a view, no one gives it to you.

Vinegar: that's what fear smells like.

Her only thought was of getting away, as if she were carrying a live grenade from inside the house, so that when it exploded, it would destroy just herself.

I’m sorry and I believe in you and I’ll always be near you, protecting you, and I will never leave you, I’ll be curled around your heart for the rest of your life.

The world is full of shitheads, Rhea. Don’t listen to them—listen to me. And I know that Lou is one of those shitheads. But I listen.

It was the hat. He looked sweet in the hat. How could a man in a fuzzy blue hat have used human bones to pave his roads?

Rich children are always blond, Jocelyn goes. It has to do with vitamins.

Time’s a goon, right? You gonna let that goon push you around?” Scotty shook his head. “The goon won.

This is the music business. 'Five years is five hundred years' - your words.

Kathy was a Republican, one of those people who used the unforgivable phrase "meant to be"--usually when describing her own good fortune or the disasters that had befallen other people.

Jesus Christ, it's like living with Stevie bloody Nicks, ' I said, 'only without the cocaine, which would be more fun.

Be what we make, and not who we are.

Anything that is unexpected is the X-factor.

I remember being awed by it - the uniqueness and nicety of style - and I suspect I was a bit jealous because we were more or less of the same generation.

He spends his life explaining from his pulpit that the glory of Christianity consists in the fact that though it is not true it has been found necessary to invent it.

That's where faith comes in. I've struggled more with being away from her. She keeps me strong. Being away from her means I have to stay in the Word and to stay strong throughout the season.

A laboratory of natural history is a sanctuary where nothing profane should be tolerated. I feel less agony at improprieties in churches than in a scientific laboratory.

The more perfect the approximation to truth, the more perfect is art.

You must remember garden catalogues are as big liars as house-agents.

It's much easier to learn what you should do in trading than to do it. Good systems tend to violate normal human tendencies.