Steven Millhauser · 305 pages
Rating: (784 votes)
“For what is genius, I ask you, but the capacity to be obsessed? ...We have all been geniuses, you and I; but sooner or later it is beaten out of us, the glory faded, and by the age of seven most of us are nothing but wretched little adults.”
“Perhaps sound is only an insanity of silence, a mad gibber of empty space grown fearful of listening to itself and hearing nothing.”
“... now and again we would happen to step out of the familiar universe into a sudden sharp shock of sweetly scented air, sudden as spilled perfume, piercing as crystal, dark and sweet as the sound of oboes.”
“... it is the purpose of this history to trace not the mere outlines of a life but the inner plan, not the external markings but the secret soul.”
“Josie, life is not a Mills and Boon book. People fall out of love. People disappoint other people and they find it very hard to forgive.”
“Ekaterin glanced back over her shoulder. “He didn’t look very well this morning, Pym. You really shouldn’t have let him get out of bed.” “Oh, I know it, ma’am,” Pym agreed morosely. “But what’s a mere armsman to do? I haven’t the authority to countermand his orders. What he really needs, is looking after by someone who won’t stand his nonsense. A proper Lady Vorkosigan would do the trick. Not one of those shy, simpering ingénues all the young lords seem to be looking to these days—he’d just ride right over her. He needs a woman of experience, to stand up to him.” He smiled apologetically down at her. “I suppose so,” sighed Ekaterin. She hadn’t really thought about the Vor mating scene from the armsmen’s point of view. Was Pym hinting that his lord had such an ingénue in his eye, and his staff was worried it was some sort of mismatch? Pym”
“It was good work, the kind of work that let you sleep soundly at night and, when you awoke, look forward to the day.”
“This time I would choose to err on the side of illogic. I had to trust intuition, and plunge as I had never plunged before, with blind faith.”
“Dapper closed his eyes and started to say something quietly—chanting. “Gaelic,” Lincoln whispered in my ear, sending a shiver down my spine. After a minute or two, the living-room wall started to move toward us, the mantelpiece splitting in the middle, opening up like two massive doors. “Open sesame,” Zoe said, her voice filled with awe. Spence was grinning ear to ear. “I know, right! I’m waiting for the troll to come out and ask for a magic password.” I smiled at him. Griffin didn’t. He smacked Spence over the head instead. Salvatore”
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