... shunning all offers of help, all offers of the more practical... This was his task, he said, and it would be carried out alone. Penance, my brother reminded me, was a lonely place to be.

She was always like that: grateful for life itself. Her glass was not only half full, it was gold plated with a permanent refill.

Nothing stays forgotten for long, Elly. Sometimes we simply have to remind the world that we're special and that we're still here.

Memories no matter how small or inconsequential are the pages that define us.

You can hold onto anything to make you carry on.

And I wonder what the sound of a heart breaking might be. And I think it might be quiet, unperceptively so, and not dramatic at all. Like the sound of an exhausted swallow falling gently to earth.

The choir sang and the old man sang and Drake couldn't sing, and suddenly he began to cry because of the music, because of the sound of the boys' voices, because of what they might turn into.

And they held on tight to that beautiful silent moment before words transported them to the realm of the ordinary, to the realm of the inarticulate and mundane.

Those left behind prayed constantly for peace but prayers came back with Return to Sender stamped all over them. Only the roll call of the dead grew.

Nothing stays forgotten for long, Elly. Sometimes we simply have to remind the world that we're still here.

Shut up, Arthur, ' said my mother, and he zipped his mouth shut like an infuriating child.Ginger started to laugh. Not at anything in particular, but just because Ginger was stoned.

When you continuously give attention to a positive thought, it becomes a dominant thought. Repeating this thought will become a bigger part of your vibration.

Liberal - a power worshipper without power.

I never gossip but I can give you the names of certain people who do.

Big dreams create the magic that stir men's souls to greatness.

I convinced myself I hadn't seen anything, ... I had done this many times before ... I was adept at erasing reality.

Children, who have yet to learn our ways, are notoriously promiscuous in their affection. They’ll sit on anyone’s knee.

My means are sane, my motives and my object mad.

Spend as much time as you can with your mouth shut and your eyes and ears open.

Music has a role, fashion has a role, cinema has a role, intellectuals have a role, parliamentarians, politicians, diplomats - all of it.

Where is the coward that would not dare to fight for such a land as Scotland?