

“Enraged, Marco paced back and forth, gripping the newspaper in his fist. What do these animals hope to accomplish with senseless violence? We have enough suffering on this island. Do we have to kill each other, too?”
― A Delicate Marriage
― A Delicate Marriage

“A professional does not act out of fervour, and is therefore more calm and less likely to make elementary errors. Not being idealistic he is not likely to have second thoughts at the last minute about who else might get hurt in the explosion, or whatever method, and being a professional he has calculated the risks to the last contingency. So his chances of success on schedule are surer than anyone else, but he will not even enter into operation until he has devised a plan that will enable him not only to complete the mission, but to escape unharmed.”
― The Day of the Jackal
― The Day of the Jackal

“The itch for naming things is almost as bad as the itch for possessing things. Let them and leave them alone--they'll survive for a few more thousand years, more or less, without any glorification from us.”
― Desert Solitaire
― Desert Solitaire

“As well, I want our special force commandos to silently slip into Cat Bi and Gia Lam airfields and destroy the aircraft stationed there. That will deal the French forces at Dien Bien Phu a stunning blow!” (Giap, 1990)”
― A Gracious Enemy & After the War Volume One
― A Gracious Enemy & After the War Volume One

“For me a work of fiction exists only insofar as it affords me what I shall bluntly call aesthetic bliss, that is a sense of being somehow, somewhere, connected with other states of being where art (curiosity, tenderness, kindness, ecstasy) is the norm.”
― Lolita
― Lolita
Terrence’s 2024 Year in Books
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