I'd studied English since the first grade but considered it a murky language, one whose grammar seemed to have been made up on the fly

Telling my story was supposed to be a good thing but it had just made everything worse.

I was so tired of his being even-keeled in the face of all that was upsetting and ugly and illogical.

Some people say the Balkans is just inherently violent. That we have to fight a war every fifty years.""I hope that's not true", I said.

The realization that my parents, too, felt pain and fear frightened me more than any strangers could.

Music, I'd heard him say, was like dessert. He could live without it, but life just wasn't as good.

...I knew in the end the guilt of one side did not prove the innocence of the other.

Even if I could, I wouldn't. Scars can come in handy. I have one myself above my left knee that is a perfect map of the London Underground.

Not having money to spend doesn’t mean we can’t have well-spent moments every day. (42)

How easy to be free. How strong we are when we have nothing to lose.

America is rising with a giant's strength. Its bones are yet but cartilages.

You live and you learn.

There's only one remedy for crime — get rid of the psychs! They are causing it!

What people sometimes interpret as quirky is my attempt to subvert the concept of luxury by introducing elements that are considered ordinary or commonplace.

I've told you for the fifty-thousandth time, stop exaggerating. Losers are people who are afraid of losing.

The forms of art reflect the history of man more truthfully than do documents themselves.

We rise to a challenge and set a course. We take a decision. You put your mind to something. Just deciding to do it gets you halfway there. Daring to try.