“I have been mastered at last, sweet Cyn, helpless in the face of that most human of failings, I love you.”

“We are not helpless...Many times in our lives we’ve been powerless, but not this night. Right now we have the power to choose the manner in which we die. If you have been a master of nothing else in all your days, you are now a master of this moment. And I for one am going to give such an answer to this insult that others will dearly regret not being by my side to see it!”

“Raphael have kids? NODoes Cyn have kids? NOWill Raphael allow Cyn to have kids with someone else? Are you out of your mind?”

“There was a sweetness in my voice I found nauseating. I made a note to myself never to have children. Or at least not helpless children.”

“I should like to think that had I been around at the time I would have been a convinced anti-Nazi engaged in the underground resistance fight. However, I know really that I would have been as confused and felt as helpless as most of the people I am writing about”

“The river and the garden have been the foundations of my economy here. Of the two I have liked the river best. It is wonderful to have the duty of being on the river the first and last thing every day. I have loved it even in the rain. Sometimes I have loved it most in the rain.”