Nom Deplume

“Her absence had felt like torture--almost a form of personal punishment. He had nobody to discuss his feelings with, and for the first time he realised with appalling clarity what a destructive hold she had over him.”
― Stieg Larsson, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

“She had been sharing a house with him for a week, and he had not once flirted with her. He had worked with her, asked her opinion, slapped her on the knuckles figuratively speaking when she was on the wrong track, and acknowledged that she was right when she corrected him. Dammit, he had treated her like a human being.”
― Stieg Larsson, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

“We communicated with pithy, rather monosyllabic thoughts: viz. Run, Jump, Where? Left, Up, Duck, ect. (This latter was an observation I made on the edge of a lake. Nathaniel unfortunately took it as a command, which resulted in our temporary immersion.) We didn't ever quite say Ug, but it was a close-run thing.”
― Jonathan Stroud, Ptolemy's Gate

“It did no good to cry, she had learned that early on.”
― Stieg Larsson, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo