“But everyone's an expert with the virtue of hindsight . . . .”

“But history is a faithless teller whose cruel recourse to hindsight makes fools of its actors.”

“They say everyone needs something to love.”

“He was a scribble of a man.”

“Those who live in memories are never really dead.”

“It was the sibling thing, I suppose. I was fascinated by the intricate tangle of love and duty and resentment that tied them together. The glances they exchanged; the complicated balance of power established over decades; the games I would never play with rules I would never fully understand. And perhaps that was key: they were such a natural group that they made me feel remarkably singular by comparison. To watch them together was to know strongly, painfully, all that I'd been missing.”

“In each man's heart there lies a hole. A dark abyss of need, the filling of which takes precedence over all else.”