"Later, in the sorry months and years, Stephen was to make efforts to reenter this moment, to burrow his way back through the folds of events, crawl between the covers, and reverse his decision. But time—not necessarily as it is, for who know that, but as thought has constituted it—monomaniacally forbids second chances." Chapter 1, p. 10.

"He had been back a thousand times, seen his own hand, a shelf, the good accumulate, heard Kate chattering on, and tries to move his eyes, lift them against the weight of time, to find the shrouded figure at the periphery of vision, the one who was always on the side and slightly behind, who, filled with a strange desire, was calculating odds, or simply waiting." Chapter 1, p. 12.

"The idea that the more educated the population was, the more readily its problems could be solved had quietly faced away...