Men made wagers with their judgment, their allegiances, their resources.

I will not say I am sorry, but I can tell you that I grieve.

When I was 18 years old, in a more innocent time, my first backpacking trip through Europe, I sneaked into the Temple of Saturn in the Roman Forum after nightfall and spent several hours in there avoiding the guards patrolling.

Weariness, sometimes more than anything else, can bring an end to war.

There was some sadness in how that could happen, Tai thought: falling out of love with something that had shaped you. Or even people who had? But if you didn't change at least a little, where were the passages of a life? Didn't learning, changing, sometimes mean letting go of what had once been seen as true?

After a while, you start to realize that you should write a book you would want to read. I try to write a book I would enjoy.

... everyone knew that all islands were worlds unto themselves, that to come to an island was to come to another world.