“The night darkens, the stars unfriendly, the cold a knife upon her neck - but Nella waits, until she can no longer difference between Johannes and the darkness that carries him away.”

“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”