"All my stories are about the action of grace on a character who is not very willing to support it, but most people think of these stories as hard, hopeless and brutal."

“He had quite liked the dwarfs. He often had no idea what they were talking about, but for a group of homicidal, class-obsessed small people, they were really rather good fun.”

Source : John Connolly (2006). “The Book of Lost Things: A Novel”, p.142, Simon and Schuster

“People go wrong in their fellowships before they go wrong in their doctrine.”

“Prose talks and poetry sings.”

“The third umpires should be changed as often as nappies and for the same reason.”

“In sport, if you want to be the best you have to compete against the best - I would much rather have come tenth and be judged against everyone than come first and be judged against just a few.”

Source : "Michael Phelps: 'I consider myself normal'" by Katie McLaughlin, www.cnn.com. August 1, 2012.

“Rome, like Washington, is small enough, quiet enough, for strong personal intimacies; Rome, like Washington, has its democratic court and its entourage of diplomatic circle; Rome, like Washington, gives you plenty of time and plenty of sunlight. In New York we have annihilated both.”

“The Spirit of man is like a kite, which rises by means of those very forces which seem to oppose its rise; the tie that joins it to the earth, the opposing winds of temptation, and the weight of earth-born affections which it carries with it into the sky.”

Source : Coventry Patmore (2016). “The Rod, the Root and the Flower”, p.9, Lulu.com

“We have hearts within, Warm, live, improvident, indecent hearts.”