We all reconstruct our past because we wish to see how our present came to be our present - do we not?

Oh, propriety," says Mrs Benjamin. "We're always so concerned with propriety. Even in total madness, we still stick to our hierarchies and chains of command.

No one does. No one really knows how to be happy. You just get close, sometimes. That’s all I want – just to be close.

The gods are cruel not because they make us work. They are cruel because they allow us to hope.

The older you get, the more voices you get in the back of your head.

Voters might have short memories. Politicians do not.

They have forgotten that war is momentum.War is natural. And war makes one strong.

What a tremendous sin impatience is, he thinks. It blinds us to the moment before us, and it is only when that moment has passed that we look back, and see it was full of treasures.

...there is no better time to examine and understand one’s selfhood than when it is dissected and hurtling through darkness.

Here at the edges, in the cracks and at the crossroads, stepping from shadow to shadow in the river of darkness that runs through the heart of Wink, he feels much more at home.

And we convict almost every case, she thinks, because the law requires us to prosecute them for living their way of life.

No one has it who isn't capable of genuinely liking others at least at the actual moment of meeting and speaking. Charm is always genuine it may be superficial but it isn't fake.

A house divided against itself cannot stand - I believe this government cannot endure permanently half-slave and half-free.

I always wanted to be wealthy. I did.

If it's not an absolute YES, it's a NO

There is one thing one has to have either a soul that is cheerful by nature, or a soul made cheerful by work, love, art, and knowledge.

When you cast doubt on some bodily function- you don't know how sensitive the body is to that kind of idea.

Growing up, I looked up to major league baseball players, and now these young women have amazing, incredible women all across the board, from swimming to gymnastics to softball to basketball.

Experience is a dear teacher but he delivers th' goods.

The world as dreamed and the world as lived cross-pollinate each other.

I suspect any serious reader has a first great book, just the way anybody has a first kiss.