A Place Called Winter

He was not a scholar – his brain seemed too sluggish or too dreamy to grasp the things demanded of it – but he was never happier than when left alone among books, and would spend hours turning the pages of atlases, novels or tales from history, alive to the alternative versions of himself they seemed to proffer.

Bad men you want to kiss are the worst; he had only to use the right tone of voice and you offered your throat to the knife.

He is like a traveler who looks left and right but doesn’t think to look behind or above him. Men like that get eaten by cougars.

the law is a blind woman and the judge usually an unloved old man.

She believed the key element to patriotism was display; that it was all about being seen to support a cause, being seen to wave a flag.

I’m a hopeless conversationalist. I’d always rather listen.

It’s horrible being laughed at,’ he said. ‘People say you should be a good sport and get used to it, but the laughter never seems friendly and one never gets used to it. Or I don’t.

He was, his sister had pointed out, like a patient and accepting ox at times, not a man who would ever, like Harry, suffer a broken night imagining bad things that might never happen. Paul was given to welcoming life's blessings when they befell him, whereas Harry would fret about whether he deserved the bounty or would have to pay for it later.