“By July we had strawberries, red currants, raspberries, veal, dill, baby turnips, marrow. Mussolini resigned, and Italy capitulated. Roses could be had.”

“The astute journalist had commented that Russians enjoy themselves without smiling, always taking their pleasure sadly.”

“A man is ruled by appetite and remorse, and I swallowed what I could.”

“She was a woman who cared more about what she was right about than about being right.”

“But of course Anton turned out to be brave and strong, and so he died while he was still unlikable.”

“He HAD seen the world. It had been scary at times, but also exhilarating. Who could have imagined it would be such a complicated, interesting place?...When you saw different parts of the world, you saw different parts of yourself. And when you stayed home, where it was safe, those parts of yourself also stayed hidden. ”

“I had always wondered why people closed their eyes when they kissed. Now I knew: they can't help it. The feeling is too overwhelming: the taste, the touch, the smell, even the sound. The sense of sight had to be excluded, or it wouldn't be possible to funciton.”