“If I Would...Could You?”

“Go back to bed, Cowan. I want no promises from you.”

“Then, as now, it was just uncomfortable. Now, as then, it was a lifted chin and a crooked smile that said more than they would ever allow themselves to communicate.”

“But you can't fault me on my footnotes. I've worked hard on them and they look pretty impressive. And almost all the sources I quote actually exist. I must confess, however, that the idea of putting footnotes in chapter 5, the autobiographical chapter, started out simply as a joke. Who but a biblical scholar would think of footnoting an autobiography? But the joke quickly got out of hand and become a significant part of that chapter. I plan someday to write a scholarly article consisting of a single sentence and a twenty-page footnote.”

“There are so many people put there who will tell you that you can't. What you've got to do is turn around and say "Watch me.”

“Cowan son of Branieucc, you're the only one of my people that I know for sure still lives.”

“...he couldn't help but wonder what Hannah might have looked like if...he'd answered that question April had asked him years ago.”