“But flying across the centuries would have been a hefty job even for a very ironic goose. Crossing the Swedish provinces is far easier”

“How ironic, she thought, as she fell to her certain death, that at that moment she would have given anything to be a giant goose again.”

“Transferring your passion to your job is far easier than finding a job that happens to match your passion.”

“It is my belief that, given the necessary physical likeness, it was far easier to pretend to be king of Ruritania than it would have been to personate my next-door neighbor.”

“If the counsel of the peaceniks had been followed, Kuwait would today be the nineteenth province of Iraq. Bosnia would be a trampled and cleansed province of Greater Serbia, Kosovo would have been emptied of most of its inhabitants, and the Taliban would still be in power in Afghanistan. Yet nothing seems to disturb the contented air of moral superiority of those that intone the "peace movement".”

“If he'd looked like a cross between Mr. Clooney and, say, one of the hobbits, I probably would have been far more capable of coherent thought.”