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."

"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."

"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."