“Avoiding Germans, they were delivering themselves into rural silences ever more profound. They ate snow.”

“Cold and silence. Nothing quieter than snow. The sky screams to deliver it, a hundred banshees flying on the edge ofthe blizzard. But once the snow covers the ground, it hushes as still as my heart.”

“For a short while she considered the idea of orchestral courtesy. Certainly one should avoid giving political offence: German orchestras, of course, used to be careful about playing Wagner abroad, at least in some countries, choosing instead German composers who were somewhat more ... apologetic.”

“Don't ever promise more than you can deliver, but always deliver more than you promise.”

“In order to pass the time I told him the story of the German who ate the other German whom he’d met on the internet.”

“It was Russia, January 5, 1943, and just another icy day. Out among the city and snow, there were dead Russians and Germans everywhere. Those who remained were firing into the blank pages in front of them. Three languages interwove. The Russian, the bullets, the German.”