I know you loved both he and I, the way a mother can love two sons. And no one should be judged for loving more than they ought, only for loving not enough.

You are going to break your promise. I understand. And I hold my hands over the ears of my heart, so that I will not hate you.

You will always fall in love, and it will always be like having your throat cut, just that fast.

And as we watched, the Tsar of Death lifted up his eyelids like skirts and began to dance in the streets of Leningrad.

Just tell yourself a story that'll satisfy you and pretend he told it.

Just remember that the only question in a house is who is to rule. The rest is only dancing around that, trying not to look it in the eye.

Men die. It's practically what they're for.

First, the avid student must be aware that when the world was young it knew only seven things: water, life and death, salt, night, birds and the length of an hour.

In both marriage and war you must cut up the things people say like a cake and eat only what you can stomach.

No, not like this, when I have not seen you without your skin on, when I know nothing, when I am not safe. Not you, whose name all my nightmares know.

It was at thirteen years old that Marya Morevna learned how to keep a secret, and that secrets are jealous things, permitting no fraternization.

Life is never as complex as ego would want you to believe.

His heart was leaping against his ribs like a frantic bird. Perhaps it knew it had little time left, perhaps it was determined to fulfill a lifetime’s beats before the end.

Nothing brings more pain than too much pleasure; nothing more bondage than too much liberty.

Twitter is more a cultural than a technological change.

It's so hard to figure out what's going on in biological systems. You just can't see them.

When I do something I give everything, so it has to be something that I really want to go for.

Whatever principle of intelligence we attain in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection.

No weapon is sharper than will.

The heart's hushed secret in the soft dark eye.

I'm just very careful with my words when I write. Obsessively careful. I'm the sort of person who worries about the difference between "slim" and "slender."