"Kublai Khan Does not necessarily believe everything Marco Polo says when he describes the cities visited on his expeditions, but the emperor of the Tartars does continue listening to the young Venetian with greater attention and curiosity than he shows any other explorer of his." Chapter 1, pg. 5

"This city, however, does not tell its past, but contains it like the lines of a hand, written in the coursers of the streets, the gratings of the windows, the banisters of the steps, the antennae of the lightening rods, the poles of the flags, every segment marked in turn with scratches, indentations, scrolls." Chapter 1, pg. 11

"Zora's secret lies in the way your gaze runs over patterns following one another as in a musical score where not a note can be altered or displaced." Chapter 1, pg. 15

"Futures not achieved are only branches of the past: dead branches." Chapter 2, pg 29

"On the...