“Warp threads are thicker than the weft, and made of a coarser wool as well. I think of them as like wives. Their work is not obvious - all you can see are the ridges they make under the colorful weft threads. But if they weren't there, there would be no tapestry. Georges would unravel without me.”

“You're so calm and quiet, you never say. But there are things inside you. I see them sometimes, hiding in your eyes.”

“What do you believe, Aunt Elizabeth?''I believe. . . I am comfortable with reading the Bible figuratively rather than literally. For instance, I think the six days in Genesis are not literal days, but different periods of creation, so that it took many thousands --- or hundreds of thousands of years --- to create. It does not demean God; it simply gives Him more time to build this extraordinary world.''And the ichthyosaurus and plesiosaurus?''They are creatures from long, long ago. They remind us that the world is changing. Of course it is. I can see it change when there are landslips at Lyme that alter the shoreline. It changes when there are earthquakes and volcanic eruptions and floods. And why shouldn't it?”

“They were a mother's words, words I would say to my own daughter if I were concerned for her”

“Jane Austen easily used half a page describing someone else's eyes; she would not appreciate summarizing her reading tastes in ten titles.”

“I have a bed and enough to eat and kind people about me. God is still with me. For these things I am grateful and have no reason to complain”

“There is no need to fear," he said, "for you are here with me.”