If there is God, I thought...Please some day let me make love to this girl while she wears that dress." "Oh..." "Tatiasha...isn't it nice to know there is a God?

Oh Alexander," she said, "what do you want from me..." "Everything!" he whispered fiercely.

A bus came. The soldier turned away from her and walked toward it. Tatiana watched him. Even his walk was from another world; the step was too sure, the stride too long, yet somehow it all seemed right, looked right, felt right. It was like stumbling on a book you thought you had lost. Ah, yes, there it is.

Tatiana realized she was too young to hide well what was in her heart but old enough to know that her heart was in her eyes.

The days of idealism had gone. Only life was left.

I wish I could spend six years writing one novel.

I love you breathlessly, my amazing man.