“They could read him, they could study him, they could pick him apart, but they couldn't laugh or be sad with him....”

“In a word, and bluntly: as they walked around Sankt Pauli, it came to Pelletier and Espinoza that the search for Archimboldi could never fill their lives. They could read him, they could study him, they could pick him apart, but they couldn’t laugh or be sad with him, partly because Archimboldi was always far away, partly because the deeper they went into his work, the more it devoured its explorers. In a word: in Sankt Pauli and later at Mrs. Bubis’s house, hung with photographs of the late Mr. Bubis and his writers, Pelletier and Espinoza understood that what they wanted to make was love, not war.”

“They could laugh at him but they couldn't ignore him”

“I equal parts loved him and could not stand him. I couldn't wake him to share in my distress.”

“Though I could agree with him that Miss Gamache had a good heart, I couldn't read her book without wanting to plunge an ice pick into it while screaming, 'That's for chapter four!”

“I couldn't see him but I could hear him snoring softly, humming, like a little airplane lost in the clouds.”