Helen Simonson, Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

"...I tell myself it does not matter what one reads--favorite authors, particular themes--as long as we read something. It is not even important to own the books."

"...as I get older, I find myself insisting on my right to be philosophically sloppy."

"He cursed himself for having assumed the weather would be sunny. Perhaps it was the result of evolution, he thought--some adaptive gene that allowed the English to go on making blithe outdoor plans in the face of almost certain rain."

"We are all small-minded people, creeping about the earth grubbing for our own advantage and making the very mistakes for which we want to humiliate our neighbors."