Time does not act on memory to soften the edges, blur the details; if anything, it sharpens them. Emotions may lose their acid outlines, but not places and people, not if you wish to retain them.

... danger was always at its most lethal when disguised as respectability.

You don't have to be sincere yourself to recognize sincerity when you see it. Any more than you have to be insane to recognize insanity.

Possibilities swung from the ropes of his life like charms on a watch chain, golden.

martyrs are always uncomfortable people to live with.

Time does not act on memory to soften the edges, blur the details; if anything, it sharpens them. Emotions may lose their acid outlines, but not places and people, not if you wish to retain them.

Istanbul ... the constant beating of the wave of the East against the rock of the West.