Charles Wilson

“The spreading influence of the Church had affected the domestic arrangements of all, including priests and princes, setting bastard stock in a separate, inferior category to children born in wedlock.”
― Charles Spencer, The White Ship: Conquest, Anarchy and the Wrecking of Henry I’s Dream

“what I eventually concluded was that it was necessary to cleanse one’s vision in order to see the door. To do this one must return to the place, the geographical location where one last believed the world to be fluid, responsive to oneself. In short one must return to the last place in which one had stood before the iron hand of modern rationality gripped one’s mind.”
― Susanna Clarke, Piranesi

“Man, who has not been granted the gift of undoing, who is always an un-consulted heir of other men’s deeds, and who is always burdened with a responsibility that appears to be the consequence of an unending chain of events rather than conscious acts, demands an explanation and interpretation of the past in which the mysterious key to his future destiny seems to be concealed.”
― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism

“The first day I walked into Frank’s kitchen, I was sporting a long ponytail, mascara, and combat boots. By the time I left, I had cut my hair short and wore my chef’s coat with pride. I didn’t adorn myself with anything else. I shed any notion of an adolescent identity and started from scratch.”
― Edward Lee, Buttermilk Graffiti: A Chef's Journey to Discover America's New Melting-Pot Cuisine