“That may be. But to decide that I was never going to live as a proper woman was not your choice to make.' 'What do you mean a proper woman?' 'A proper woman marries - she has children -' 'Then what does that make me? Am I not a proper woman? Last time I looked I certainly was.”

“Then where is home, Johannes?" He looks at the maps on his wall. "I don't know," He says. "Where comfort is. And that is hard to find.”

“Writing is a leap of faith. But how wonderful that the person you're putting faith in is yourself.”

“1887A lifetime isn't enough to know how a person will behave.”

“When you have truly come to know a person, Nella -- when you see beneath the sweet gestures, the smiles -- when you see the rage and the pitiful fear which each of us hide -- then forgiveness is everything.”

“But words are water in Amsterdam, they flood your ears and set the rot, and the church's east corner is crowded.”

“Growing older does not seem to make you more certain. It simply presents you with more reasons for doubt.”

“A lifetime isn't enough to know how a person will behave.”

“In suffering we find our truest selves.”

“Marin believes love is better in the chase than caught,’ she says. He raises his eyebrows. ‘That does not surprise me. It is not better. But it is easier. One’s imagination is always more generous. And yet, the chase always tires you out in the end.”

“Nothing here is more fabulous than the truth”