Amy

“Oskar is the fruit of those fantasies -- the idea that what needed to be saved was not just lives but hope.”
― Richard Simon, Oskar and the Eight Blessings

“People like mystery. They want nothing explained, because when things are explained then there is no hope left. I have seen folk dying and known there is nothing to be done, and I am asked to go because the priest will soon arrive with his dish covered by a cloth, and everyone prays for a miracle. It never happens. And the person dies and I get blamed, not God or the priest, but I!”
― Bernard Cornwell, Vagabond

“Success requires persistence, the ability to not give up in the face of failure. I believe that optimistic explanatory style is the key to persistence.”
― Martin E.P. Seligman, Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life

“Oskar's particular blessings are blessings that only a major cosmopolitan city can bestow on a refugee. They represent all our potential to survive and even thrive in the face of great loss.”
― Richard Simon, Oskar and the Eight Blessings