Derek

“You intolerable lunatic," he snarled at me, and then he caught my face between his hands and kissed me.”
― Naomi Novik, Uprooted

“Am I a fraud, then, or a scholar? I am both, of course, as we all are. Half of what I know I do not believe. Half of what I believe I cannot prove. For the rest, I hope to muddle through and my mistakes go without comment.”
― Nick Harkaway, Gnomon

“Any glimpse into the life of an animal quickens our own and makes it so much the larger and better in every way.”
― John Muir

“A woman who can eat a real bruschetta is a woman you can love and who can love you. Someone who pushes the thing away because it's messy is never going to cackle at you toothlessly across the living room of your retirement cottage or drag you back from your sixth heart attack by sheer furious affection. Never happen. You need a woman who isn't afraid of a faceful of olive oil for that.”
― Nick Harkaway, The Gone-Away World