"For this was the point, surely: he would be a better doctor for having read literature."

"Relaxed was how she wanted to feel, and, at the same time, self-contained. Above all, she wanted to look as though she had not given the matter a moment's thought, and that would take time."

"How guilt refined the methods of self-torture, threading the beads of detail into an eternal loop, a rosary to be fingered for a lifetime"

"He could become again the man who had once crossed a Surrey park at dusk in his best suit, swaggering on the promise of life, who had entered the house and with the clarity of passion made love to Cecilia - no, let him rescue the word from the corporals, they had fucked while others sipped their cocktails on the terrace. The story could resume, the one that he had been planning on that evening walk."

"His business was simple. Find Cecilia, love her, marry her, and live without shame."

"Rootless, therefore futile. He wanted a father, and for the same reason, he wanted to be a father. It was common enough, to see so much death and want a child"

"[...] Is she still happy? Did she get married to that man she loved so well? [...]"

"The problem these fifty-nine years had been this: how can a novelist achieve atonement when, with her absolute power od deciding outcomes, she is also God? [...] No atonement for God, or novelists, even if they are atheists. It was always an impossible task, and that was precisely the point. The attempt was all."