“The coded message is a lifeless thing, mummified and entombed. To the would-be cryptologist we must offer the same advice we would give the grave-robber, the spelunker, and the sorcerer of legend: beware what you dig up; it is yours.”

“Love is the same as being lost,' says Jacques to the dark. 'Except you don't care that you're lost.”

“It is not enough to say that you have had a hunch. Once written down, most such inklings reveal themselves for what they are: something to be tossed into a wishing well, not into a file.”

“There is no better way to understand your own motives and dispositions than by finding someone to act as your opposite.”

“A train will bring you back to the place you came from, but it will not return you home.”

“If you are not setting a trap, then you are probably walking into one. It is the mark of the master to do both at once.”

“On Memory: Imagine a desk covered with papers. That is everything you are thinking about. Now imagine a stack of file drawers behind it. That is everything you know. The trick is to keep the desk and the file drawers as close to one another as possible, and the papers neatly stacked.”