I was on the verge of something numinous and profound and in one more second the universe was going to crack open and arcana would rain down on my head like grace and all the cosmic mysteries were going to be revealed.

It wasn't that [he] believed in religion, or a God, or an afterlife. He just knew it was impossible to feel this much love and for it to end.

Julia's vocabulary was "chock-full" of strangely archaic words - "spiffing," "crumbs," "jeepers" - that seemed to have originated in some prewar girls' annual rather than in Julia's own life. For Jackson, words were functional, they helped you get to places and explain things. For Julia, they were freighted with inexplicable emotion.

I have been to the world's end and back and now I know what I would put in my bottom drawer .I would put my sisters.

I am mad, I think. I am mad therefore I think. I am mad therefore I think I am.

The past is a cupboard full of light and all you have to do is find the key that opens the door.

Men had no purpose on earth whereas women were gods walking unrecognized among them.