The essence of charity ... was not deciding what others needed and giving it to them, but giving them what they wanted.

Oh, that sound? I'm in the hot tub, reading a novel.

One of the things that Ivar knew about Mrs. Walker was that she would only tell him what she knew if he asked the right question, so he spent a portion of his time meditating over what he might ask Mrs. Walker and how he might phrase the question.

A reader's tastes are peculiar. Choosing books to read is like making your way down a remote and winding path. Your stops on that path are always idiosyncratic. One book leads to another and another the way one thought leads to another and another. My type of reader is the sort who burrows through the stacks in the bookstore or the library (or the Web site — stacks are stacks), yielding to impulse and instinct.

In my experience, there is only one motivation, and that is desire. No reasons or principle contain it or stand against it.

Like most of the educated, I do harbor a fondness for the sins of my ignorant past.

If there's anything Trollope novels always take seriously, it is money - how it flows from one character to another, how it is managed, who has it, who deserves it, and what it means to a character, male or female.