“But the Count hadnt the temperament for revenge; he hadnt the imagination for epics; and he certainly hadnt the fanciful ego to dram of empires restored. No. His model for mastering his circumstanc...”

“But of course, the Count also wept for himself. For despite his friendships with Marina and Andrey and Emile, despite his love for Anna, despite Sofia - that extraordinary blessing that had struck ...”

“When one turns seventeen and begins to experience that first period of real independence, one's senses are so alert, one's sentiments so finely attuned that every conversation, every look, every la...”

“...but the tenure of friendships has never been governed by the passage of time.”

“Presumably, the bells of the Church of the Ascension had been reclaimed by the Bolsheviks for the manufacture of artillery, thus returning them to the realm from whence they came. Though for all th...”

“Popular upheaval, political turmoil, industrial progressany combination of these can cause the evolution of a society to leapfrog generations, sweeping aside aspects of the past that might otherwis...”

“Just because it's fiction doesn't mean it's any less true.”

“Oh, Sweetie. No one ever gets through their TBR list. For every book you finish, you'll add five more. That's just the way it works.”

“If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”