"It might have changed my whole plan of operation if I'd read that one first."

“If Broadway was a river running from the top of Manhattan down to the Battery, undulating with traffic and commerce and lights, then the east-west streets were eddies where, leaf-like, one could turn slow circles from the beginning to the ever shall be, world without end.”

Source : Amor Towles (2011). “Rules of Civility: A Novel”, p.84, Penguin

“If you accept failure as learning, it's not discouraging to keep adapting until you find success.”

“The way to find what the mainstream will do tomorrow is to associate with the lunatic fringe today.”

“To see things simply is the hardest thing in the world.”

Source : Richard Mühlberger, Charles Webster Hawthorne (1999). “Charles Webster Hawthorne”, University of Washington Press

“She is overtaken by a sensation of unbeing. There is no other word for it.”

“The truth of the matter is, the birds could very well live without us, but many -- perhaps all -- of us would find life incomplete, indeed almost intolerable without the birds.”

“I believe that the American administration of Iraq has been arrogant, has pursued policies that are illegal in international law and has been ignorant and incompetent. I said this very forthrightly to the senators.”

“Maggie Shipstead takes hold of the reader and doesn't let go. Astonish Me is a haunting, powerful novel.”