Well, I can't remember not being able to read. I was told I could read by myself very well at the age of three.

You dinna need to understand me, Sassenach," he said quietly. "So long as you love me.

And I mean to hear ye groan like that again. And to moan and sob, even though you dinna wish to, for ye canna help it. I mean to make you sigh as though your heart would break, and scream with the wanting, and at last to cry out in my arms, and I shall know that I've served ye well.

Do you know,' he said again softly, addressing his hands, 'what it is to love someone, and never - never! - be able to give them peace, or joy, or happiness?' He looked up then, eyes filled with pain. 'To know that you cannot give them happiness, not through any fault of yours or theirs, but only because you were not born the right person for them?

It was in a way a comforting idea; if there was all the time in the world, then the happenings of a given moment became less important.

I swore an oath before the altar of God to protect this woman. And if you're tellin' me that ye consider your own authority to be greater than that of the Almighty, then I must inform ye that I'm not of that opinion, myself.

Character, I think, is the single most important thing in fiction. You might read a book once for its interesting plot—but not twice.