“Impending war was evidenced by the faraway expression in the older villagers' eyes, the shadows on their faces, not of fear but of sorrow. Because they knew; they had lived through the last war and...”

“No two people will ever see or feel things in the same way, Merry. The challenge is to be truthful when you write. Don't approximate. Don't settle for the easiest combination of words. Go searching...”

“They were young; time hadn't yet rubbed at them, polishing their differences and sharpening their opinions...”

“History in the storyteller's hand was a potent force indeed,....”

“I dont have many friends, not the living, breathing sort at any rate. And I dont mean that in a sad and lonely way; Im just not the type of person who accumulates friends or enjoys crowds. Im good ...”

“My fingers positively itched to drift at length along their spines, to arrive at one whose lure I could not pass, to pluck it down, to inch it open, then to close my eyes and inhale the soul-sparki...”

“Thus nature provides a system for proportioning the growth of plants that satisfies the three canons of architecture. All modules are isotropic and they are related to the whole structure of the pl...”

“We therefore find that the triangles and rectangles herein described, enclose a large majority of the temples and cathedrals of the Greek and Gothic masters, for we have seen that the rectangle of ...”

“I saw cities, and roads of marvelous construction. I saw cruelty and greed, but I've seen them here too. I saw a people live a life that was strange in many ways, but also much the same as anywhere...”

“This is the strangest life I have ever known.”

“I feel very adventurous. There are so many doors to be opened, and I'm not afraid to look behind them.”

“Ive won his heart, but its like owning a house in which most of the doors are permanently locked. He wants to shield me from all unpleasantness. And its not really marriagenot like the marriage you...”

“With a secret like that, at some point the secret itself becomes irrelevant. The fact that you kept it does not.”

“Then Cassie told her story. The feeling was like gathering up everything she's ever done or felt or known up to that moment and tying it into a ball and pitching it with all her might as far away a...”

“Every woman needs secrets,' her mother said with a smile then, her eyes meeting Sally's in the rearview mirror. 'Remember that when you're old like me, pumpkin, because the world has a way of makin...”