How much more courage it took to be kind than to be cruel.

To be honest, the only thing I ever really wanted to be was a writer - since I read 'Charlotte's Web' as a child.

Fear lives in the head. And courage lives in the heart. The job is to get from one to the other.

The night is a strawberry.

In winter the very ground seemed to reach up and grab the elderly, yanking them to earth as though hungry for them.

When someone stabs you it's not your fault that you feel pain.

But you want murderous feelings? Hang around librarians," confided Gamache. "All that silence. Gives them ideas.