I learned for the first time that when we lose the people closest to us, we tend to become more like them – as if to fill immediately the unbearable lack they have left behind.

We’re not from the same Britain,” Geoffrey said. “I don’t come from your grandfather’s Great Britain. I come from a rat-infested, coal-filled hole in England called Newcastle. My people were all miners, domestics, and dung shovelers.

If you think you have come to an unhappy ending, it is not the true end. Keep going awhile.

I’ve been doing research on my own and conducting interviews with some of the local librarians. Very valuable people, librarians. Like your family, they keep all kinds of records. And unlike your family, they tend not to burn them.

Let’s agree right here at the outset that memory is made up of one part perception, one part intuition, and one part pure invention.

But it was no use. I had the kind of heart that would always be breaking.

The secret to those who write is that they come to the art simply because they cannot speak.

We secure our friends not by accepting favors but by doing them.” “War springs from unseen and generally insignificant causes.

The one sure thing in this life is change. That is the one thing you may rely upon.

The secret to happiness is freedom – and the secret to freedom is courage.