Proscription, martial law, the billeting of the rude troops, the tax collector, the unjust judge, anything at all, is sweeter than responsibility.

... the average Catholic perceives no connection between religion and morality, unless it is a question of someone else's morality.

On the wall of our life together hung a gun waiting to be fired in the final act.

...the tourist Venice is Venice.

For both writer and reader, the novel is a lonely, physically inactive affair. Only the imagination races.

The desire to believe the best of people is a prerequisite for intercourse with strangers; suspicion is reserved for friends.

Venice is the worlds unconscious: a misers glittering hoard, guarded by a Beast whose eyes are made of white agate, and by a saint who is really a prince who has just slain a dragon.