“He keeps his deepest belief tight to him: that people are good and want to be good, if only you give them a chance.”

“Give him a good ducking, anyhow.-But he'd crawl back.Duck him again; and keep ducking him.-Suppose he should take it into his head to duck you, though—yes, and drown you—what then?”

“If you keep asking for what is best, God will give you very good chance to achieve it, even if you don't believe in God.”

“Lancelot tried to have a Word. His Word was valuable to him not only because he was good, but also because he was bad. It is the bad people who need to have principles to restrain them.”

“I wanted the chance to give him something, to give him the best of me, as pathetic as it was, damaged and broken, warped at the edges, hardly worth having. I decided that if I had the chance, if he asked, if he needed, it was his.”

“You can feel that he wants to own you - not like an object but like a good dream he wants to keep having. He lets you know that you already own him.”