“He'd never been one for jokes, but of course he'd pick now to get a sense of humor.”

“Now you're an adult, Katya!" he'd said, picking her up under the armpits like he'd been doing since she'd been born.”

“But he'd never been in love. He knew that was what he was really asking himself. He'd never given himself to someone else completely. He'd always held something back, even if he hadn't known that he was doing it. He'd reserved the deepest part of him, the part that truly was him, because he'd feared that once he gave it away he would never get it back.”

“He'd given up blessings he hadn't been worthy of for the chance to be with her, and now he'd lost that, too.”

“Alec encapsulated the word genius in every conceivable sense. Frank knew it. He'd always known it. He'd never learned that true genius couldn't be caged because true genius could never be contained.”

“How easily they spoke of love. And yet, when she'd needed the certainty of his feeling for her, he'd let her slip away, never able to bring himself to tell her about the ways in which he'd been changed. He'd been incapable he'd let Nenebah believe the problem lay with her.”