“I think people are much the same wherever you go. Some of them good, some of them clever, and some of them with the devil in them.”

“She didn't look at me and I didn't look at her. Some questions are so direct the only way to ask them is sideways.”

“He had strong, steady hands, and I could tell from looking at them there was little he couldn't do. Mossy always said you could tell everything you needed to know about a man from his hands. Some hands, she told me, were leaving hands. They were the wandering sort that slipped into places they shouldn't, and they would wander right off again because those hands just couldn't stay still. Some hands were worthless hands, fit only to hold a drink or flick ash from a cigar, and some were punishing hands that hit hard and didn't leave a mark and those were the ones you never stayed to see twice.But the best hands were knowing hands, Mossy told me with a slow smile. Knowing hands were capable; they could soothe a horse or woman. They could take things apart -- including your heart -- and put them back together better than before. Knowing hands were rare, but if you found them, they were worth holding, at least for a little while.”

“I adored history, not the dry dates and boring battles, but the stories and the people who populated them.”

“You are curious and quick, you have a deft mind, and for some unaccountable reason, people tell you things -- useful things.”

“You have to love someone completely to be willing to destroy them.”

“Because if we're on the road to hell, we're going to dance the whole damn way and give them something to talk about when we're gone.”