“Spy' is such a short ugly word. I prefer 'espionage.' Those extra three syllables really say something.”

“I find my voice and manage to say those three one-syllable words back to him. Words I haven't uttered in a very, very long time. Words that meant nothing before now.”

“The Three Oddest WordsWhen I pronounce the word Future,the first syllable already belongs to the past.When I pronounce the word Silence,I destroy it.When I pronounce the word nothing,I make something no nonbeing can hold.”

“Generally speaking, espionage offers each spy an opportunity to go crazy in a way he finds irresistible”

“You had a certain way of saying my name. It was the inflection maybe, something you put into those three syllables. And now you are gone and my name is just my name again, not the story of my life.”

“Prefer the familiar word to the far-fetched. Prefer the concrete word to the abstract. Prefer the single word to the circumlocution. Prefer the short word to the long. Prefer the Saxon word to the Romance.”