Fathers never have exactly the daughters they want because they invent a notion a them that the daughters have to conform to.

What an odd thing a diary is: the things you omit are more important than those you put in.

One always has to wait until the sugar melts, the memory dies, the wound scars over, the sun sets, the unhappiness lifts and fades away.

It is dreadful to think that behind me my own past is no longer anything but shifting darkness.

What is drawing? How does one learn it? It is working through an invisible iron wall that seems to stand between what one feels and what one can do.

May God illuminate your path with great favours

Don’t try and make me feel better, Alex. I hate you.”“I hate you, too.

Will you come with me?""Ah, Kestrel, that's something you never need to ask.

Books are such a great way to spend time with your children, open lines of communication with your children, and just build that strong foundation.

Celebrate those who have the courage to be second, because I do think that often there really is this claustrophobic pressure to innovate instead of to adapt.

Democratic openings that come about in that way - the overthrow of a totalitarian government by external powers - it makes it really hard to make those first steps toward democracy.

'Tis virtue, and not birth that makes us noble: Great actions speak great minds, and such should govern.

It's never too late to begin a life or a book.

Our conception of 1950s underwear is a lovely vintage aesthetic, but actually, wearing stockings with no elastic and a girdle was heavy duty.