#pg 78

'She need to be able to switch between the calm of the Buddha and the frightfulness of an ogre as skillfully as a Peking opera performer changing masks.'

Nana had tears in the corners of his eyes that were threatening to spill, and he was making a face that I've only ever seen in young boys, a face that is the façade of a man, hiding a boy who has had to grow up far too fast.

Ham nodded. “No one even knows where the atium mine is.”

Defining Grace

"E se alguma coisa há que possa fazer-me esquecer as amarguras da vida, é o gosto de haver enfim apanhado a verdade e a felicidade. Ei-las na minha mão, essas duas esquivas; após tantos séculos de lutas, pesquisas, descobertas, sistemas e quedas, ei-las nas mãos do homem."

One of the marks of a certain type of bad man is that he cannot give up a thing himself without wanting every one else to give it up. That is not the Christian way. An individual Christian may see fit to give up all sorts of things for special reasons - marriage, or meat, or beer, or the cinema; but the moment he starts saying the things are bad in themselves or looking down his nose at other people who do use them, he has taken the wrong turning.