As you know, human history is full of evil deeds, and maybe we ought to think of them with tears, not fascination.

Bulgarians eat tarator every single day in summer. They think of it as salad although we'd call it a soup. You can make it as thick or thin as you like depending on how much water you add. It's very practical in summer because yogurt cools the body faster than water, but the water hydrates you.

In those days, I still thoroughly enjoyed the romance I called "by myself"; I didn't know yet how it gets lonely, picks up a sharp edge later on that ruins a day now and then-- ruins more than that, if you're not careful.

Then you must say to her, 'Madame, I observe that your heart is broken. Allow me to repair it for you.

...History it seemed could be something entirely different a splash of blood whose agony didn't fade overnight or over centuries.

Never before had I known the sudden quiver of understanding that travels from word to brain to heart, the way a new language can move, coil, swim into life under the eyes, the almost savage leap of comprehension, the instantaneous, joyful release of meaning, the way the words shed their printed bodies in a flash of heat and light.

Recently abandoned women can be complicated.