“Just about a month from now I'm set adrift, with a diploma for a sail and lots of nerve for oars.”

“It is better to be ship with sail than adrifting log”

“When you look back on this moment months from now, don't forget the one word I'm about to say to you, Claire Deveraux. Foreplay.”

“I was occupied so entirely by each day, I felt detached from anything so large as a month or a year. History didn't cross my mind. Now it does. Now I know, whatever your burdens, to hold yourself apart from the lot of more powerful men is an illusion. On that awful day in January 1961, Lumumba paid with a life and so did I. On the wings of an owl the fallen Congo came to haunt even our little family, we messengers of goodwill adrift on a sea of mistaken intentions.”

“They say nerves heal real slowly. Lots of things about us heal real slowly.”

“The Germans will be beaten in a few months. And Japan will be beaten a few months after that. If I were to give up my life now, it wouldn't be for my country. It would be for Cathcart and Korn. So I'm turning my bombsight in for the duration. From now on I'm thinking only of me.”