“It's about that applause I want to speak to you. I want you to remember that when you've done a little dance or a song or sketch, the applause which you get is not only because you yourself have done your best, but because each of those men is seeing in you someone he loves at home, and because of you is able to forget for a little while the unhappiness of not being in his home, and in some cases the great tragedy of not knowing what has happened to the children in his family.”

“It might have all the same; you never can tell what's magic.”

“I sometimes feel that I'd like to talk about it. Then I find it's better if I don't.”

“During the last six months the little girl Harriet, without her noticing it, had disappeared and a new Harriet had taken her place. A Harriet who looked much the same outside, but was more of a person inside.”

“Like when you scrape your knee and you get a scar, but then thescar fades so much that no one can see it but you. But you know where it is. Cuz you remember what caused it. Andno matter how hard you try, you can never forget how bad it hurt when it first happened.”

“Damen, seriously, you must know I don't love you because you're immortal, I love you because you're you.”

“It didn't make much sense to me then, what Gnut was going through, but after Pila and me had our little twins, and we put a family together, I got an understanding of how terrible love can be. You wish you hated those people, your wife and children, because you know the things the world will do to them, because you have done some of those things yourself. It's crazy-making, yet you cling to them with everything and close your eyes against the rest of it. But still you wake up late at night and lie there listening for the creak and splash of oars, the clank of steel, the sounds of men rowing toward your home.”