“There are reasons we congregate in these hot spots- to worship beauty and to feel its effects light up the electrolytes in the bloodstream.”

“Although I am a person who expected to be rooted in one spot forever, as it has turned out I love having the memories of living in many places.”

“We were given one country and we've set up in another.”

“We are walking on the foundations of literature, up the steep, stony path in the fiery heat.”

“Everything I pick up seems to lure me away. Everything I do in my daily life begins to feel like striking wet matches. The need to travel is a mysterious force. A desire to 'go' runs through me equally with an intense desire to 'stay' at home. An equal and opposite thermodynamic principle. When I travel, I think of home and what it means. At home I'm dreaming of catching trains at night in the gray light of Old Europe, or pushing open shutters to see Florence awaken. The balance just slightly tips in the direction of the airport.”

“[As Chevalley says,] 'Sicilians never want to improve for the simple reason that they think themselves perfect...”

“Vicki shines with intelligence as brightly as with beauty, a clear open face, black eyes, and a smile that makes you see what she looked like as a nine-year-old.”