David Mitchell

When a woman is interested in you, she__l let you know; if not, there__ no aftershave, gift, or line you can spin to make her change her mind.

You only value something if you know it__l end.

Human cruelty can be infinite. Human generosity can be boundless.

The human understanding is like a false mirror, which, receiving rays irregularly, distorts and discolors the nature of things by mingling its own nature.

Perfume counters in department stores, Holly Deblin smells of, the middle of July, and cinnamon Tic Tacs.

Finished in a frenzy that reminded me of our last night in Cambridge. Watched my final sunrise. Enjoyed a last cigarette. Didn__ think the view could be any more perfect until I saw that beat-up trilby. Honestly, Sixsmith, as ridiculous as that thing makes you look, I don__ believe I__e ever seen anything more beautiful. Watched you for as long as I dared. I don__ believe it was a fluke that I saw you first. I believe there is another world waiting for us, Sixsmith. A better world, and I__l be waiting for you there. I believe we do not stay dead long. Find me beneath the Corsican stars, where we first kissed.Yours eternally, R.F.

Probably in a parallel universe not far from here, I'm working for Nintendo.

The potatoes were starch grenades. The canned carrots were revolting because that is their nature.

... in a cycle as old as tribalism, ignorance of the Other engenders fear; fear engenders hatred; hatred engenders violence; violence engenders further violence until the only "rights", the only law, are whatever is willed by the most powerful.

Implausible truth can serve one better than plausible fiction

What man ain't the honestest cove in his own eyes?" Grote's round face is a bronze moon in the dark. "'Tain't good intentions what paves the road to hell: it's self-justifyin's.

Nothing has changed, except everything.

The clock__ pendulum catches the firelight, and in the rattle-breathed final moments of Jacob de Zoet, amber shadows in the far corner coagulate into a woman__ form. She slips between the bigger, taller onlookers unnoticed _ _ and adjusts her headscarf, the better to hide her burn. She places her cool palms on Jacob__ fever-glazed face.Jacob sees himself, when he was young, in her narrow eyes. Her lips touch the place between his eyebrows. A well-waxed paper door slides open.

...that human hunger birthed the Civ'lize, but human hunger killed it too.

Photos__e better than nothing, but things__e better than photos __ause the things themselves were part of what was there.

Don't worry, all is well. All is so perfectly, damnably well.

Sometimes language can't even read the music of meaning.

London is a language. I guess all places are.