"But we weren't meant to live alone" (13).

"I'm not going to let them stand about knowing more than I do. I won't be got the better of" (32).

"He didn't oppose his will to the powerful slow-moving muddle around him. What he did not like, or could not change, he guilelessly avoided. The current of history carried him gently with it" ( 37).

"With the terrible aimlessness of the benevolent, he was casting round for a new misfortune"(83).

"Lukewarm, but not quite cold, unbelieving, but not quite disbelieving, he had fallen into the habit of not asking himself what he thought"(90).

"Middle-aged poets, middle-aged parents, have no defenses" (95).

"Just as a woman's body...moves at her heart's prompting, so the birch tree moves in the winds of spring" (114).

"Yes, but you are Russian, you are used to everything Russian. You make mistakes, and you don't mind our mistakes. God has given...