The Leopard

I think it's possible to learn. The problem is that we learn so damned slowly, so that by the time you've realized something, it's too late.

Incidentally, I really agree with those who say that the capacity to forgive says something about the essential quality of a person. I'm the lowest grade.' 'I didn't mean to criticize you.' 'I promise to be better in my next life...

...'I've never told you this, but when you were in your teens one of your teachers called us. He said you'd been fighting in the playground again. With two of the boys from the grade above, but this time it hadn't turned out so well--they'd had to send you to the hospital to have your lip sewn and a tooth taken out. I stopped your allowance, remember? Anyway, Øystein told me about the fight later. You flew at them because they'd filled Tresko's knapsack with water from the school fountain. If I remember correctly, you didn't even like Tresko much. Øystein said the reason you'd been hurt so badly was that you didn't give in. You got up time after time and in the end you were bleeding so much that the big boys became alarmed and went on their way.' Olav Hole laughed quietly. 'I didn't think I could tell you that at the time--it would only have been asking for more fights--but I was so proud I could have wept. You were brave, Harry. You were scared of the dark, but that didn't stop you going there.'...

No, of love. It’s the same currency. Everything starts with love. Hatred is just the other side of the coin.

I promise to be better in my next life,

That was what life was: a process of destruction, a disintegration from what at the outset was perfect. The only suspense involved was whether we would be destroyed in one sudden act or slowly.

Rikshospital. He was in the rhythm now. Time was not chopped up by events; it flowed in an even stream.

Harry shrugged. “I think it’s possible to learn. The problem is that we learn so damned slowly, so that by the time you’ve realized something, it’s too late.

It often strikes me how I ought to wish I had more regrets,” Øystein said. “But I don’t give a shit. I think I just accepted from my first waking second that I was an asshole. What about you?

Because pain and death are not the worst that can befall mankind,” Harry said, again hearing the echo. “Humiliation is. That was what he wanted for Leike. The humiliation of having everything you possess taken from you. The fall, the shame.

There were those who asserted that sons always became, to some degree or other, disguised variants of their fathers, that the experience of breaking out was never more than an illusion; you returned; the gravity of blood was not only stronger than your willpower, it was your willpower.

Physical pain is not the worst thing a human has to deal with,” Altman said. “Believe me, I see it every day. Not death, either. Nor even fear of death.” “What is the worst, then?” “Humiliation. To be deprived of honor and dignity. To be disrobed, to be cast out by the flock. That’s the worst punishment; it’s akin to being buried alive. And the only consolation is that the person will perish fairly quickly.” “Mm.” Harry kept eye contact with Altman. “You don’t have anything in that cupboard to lighten the atmosphere,

Light, expensive and yet spartan in that cool modern way that is not intentionally minimalist, just somewhat soulless. A room that demands efficiency so that you can get the hell out of it.

You are Bellman, aren’t you? The genius who sent the sauna ape after me?” Harry nodded toward the Finn.

Because humans are complicated,” Harry said, and could hear an echo of something he had heard and forgotten. “We want to do things that are complex, that mesh, where we control our fates and can feel like rulers of our own universes.