The irregular and intimate quality of things made entirely by the human hand.

Prayers said by good people are always good prayers

Our tree became the talking tree of the fairy tale; legends and stories nestled like birds in its branches.

Claude Wheeler opened his eyes before the sun was up and vigorously shook his younger brother, who lay in the other half of the same bed.

Most publishers, like most writers, are ruined by their successes.

The great fact was the land itself, which seemed to overwhelm the little beginnings of human society that struggled in its sombre wastes.

I was thinking, as I watched her, how little it mattered –about her teeth for instance. I know so many women who have kept all the things she had lost, *but whose inner glow has faded*. Whatever else was gone, Antonia had not lost the fire of life.