Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

" ... if I can survive on three continents, then there is no obstacle he cannot conquer. While the astronauts, heroes forever, spent mere hours on the moon, I have remanied in this new world for nearlyu thirty years. I know that my achievement is quite ordinary. I am not the only man to seek his fortune far from home, and certainly I am not the first. Still, there are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept. As ordinary as it all appears, there are times when it is beyond my imagination. " (p.g. 197)

The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller

" Custom brings predictability, and predictability carries its own comforts...
Predictability is one thing, fear of change is something else." (p.g.89)

" The curse of modern times is the preponderance of male hormones in places where they can do long-term damage. Even if we're not talking about wars between nations or assaults on nature, there's still that aggressiveness that keeps us apart from each other and the problems we need to be working on. We have to somehow sublimate those male hormones, or at least get them under control." (p.g. 102)

" Complex things are easy to do. Simplicity's the real challenge." (p.g. 168)