“Women didn't like to face reality, especially his.”

“His voice evoked the ghosts of those who had paid that price and died horribly. They hovered in the shadows muttering vengeance, but he didn't appear to be affected as he walked and talked. He was at home with the living and the dead.”

“Words that had looked so strong on the page, which ran through his mind like music, now shriveled in the air around him.”

“Shadows gathered as they had done for eons, beneath the moon and the twinkling of a million stars, like a gathering of forgotten deities.”

“May God forgive you for saying such a thing.”

“Another brave new world beckoned, but Dublin was dubious – too often hope had been trampled down by foreign armies or strangled in dark alleys by the shadows of avarice and graft.”

“It was great spending the nights with him, but sometimes, she needed a little break from him and the her that she became around him.”