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41 " He wanted to toast mad idealism, forbidden desires, the dreams that drove one to criminal acts. He wanted, quite starkly, oblivion. "
― Paul Russell , The Coming Storm
42 " You get exactly what you want, Anatole’s always suspected, only when you get it it’s no longer what you want, you need something else. "
― Paul Russell , The Salt Point
43 " Absolutely, love matters,” she reiterated. “We forget that at our own risk. "
44 " That’s the way Chris lives, warning everyone who gets close of the lightning that may strike. Never touch anything, never make a mark. But Anatole can’t live that way. The world’s too lonely a place: he has to touch things, he has to put his arms around them. "
45 " My darlings! You can hardly expect an aged crone like me to mar such a lovely event. No, I shall remain here and knit shadows. Now go forth and shine bravely, and think of nothing but love. "
― Paul Russell , The Unreal Life of Sergey Nabokov
46 " The angel descended when you were least expecting it. Tracy felt something quietly go click in his despairing heart. "
47 " Our students didn’t used to come from such damaged families,” Louis mused. “It’s true what they say. This country really is coming apart at the seams. "
48 " Why not simply surrender to one’s doom, since one was so clearly, so spectacularly, doomed? "
49 " There was always something sly about any act of education. Eve had learned that in the garden. "
50 " A long-simmering resentment against the world can burn off more calories than you might imagine. "
51 " Was this what was called falling in love, this wayward glimpse of another person’s soul? "
52 " If it was to be a time of momentous changes, then why not allow oneself to be swept along? "
53 " Her heart, she had discovered in the last half year, was of durable stuff. You could test its mettle with a hammer. "
54 " And anyway, never, never apologise the morning after for what your hormones were telling you last night. "
55 " The slippery slope was everywhere. "
56 " He had had an inkling, even then, that only by losing himself, the well-behaved Connecticut boy he’d always been, might he ever hope to find his other, truer self. "
57 " Leigh stands there, not so much a figure to scare crows as to beckon doves. "
58 " Having without having: it’s possible, isn’t it, that that’s worse than not having at all? "
59 " Anybody can be anybody, he told himself as he eased his body down onto Devin’s, the blunt pain of a beautiful pleasure wedging him open. "
60 " The presence of the policeman around the corner is the only thing that keeps us civilised. "