Quotes from Robert Masello

Subtle is the Lord, but malicious he is not." He still believed that to be true; there was an order to everything in the universe, and the greatest achievement would lie in deciphering it. Shuffling across the study, he repeated, "I'm coming." But

His days as a globe-trotting epidemiologist might be over—Dr. Levinson had made that perfectly clear—but his efforts to save Lantos, and now Nika, had reminded him of the satisfaction to be had from healing just one person. What was that old Hebrew proverb he'd once heard Dr. Levinson herself say—"If you save one life, it's the same as saving the whole world." Right now the only life he wanted to save, even more than his own, was Nika's.

The stars were so thick in the sky that she could not even begin to find the most elementary constellations. They were like a million glistening grains of sugar on a black velvet cloth, and the waning moon shone like a Saracen's blade.

It was as peaceful and beautiful a night as she could ever have imagined, and she understood what drew the Bedouins to this barren place and kept them there. When the sun rose, the distant rocks took on the most magnificent hues—the peachy gold and pale strawberry and pistachio green of ice cream—and Simone was quick to mount a camel and, with spurs and a riding crop, urge it on.

We are defined as much by our enemies as we are by our friends,

No, the reason he didn't fear death was because he had accepted his place—minuscule as an atom, insignificant as a mayfly—in a mystery and a miracle beyond full comprehension. It was enough to have participated in it and to have achieved as much as one could while here.

The idea that the Allies were up against a lunatic was even more terrifying than the prospect of battling a rational, though supremely evil, foe. At least you could try to outsmart a rational man; you could guess his next move and try to counteract it. A madman, on the other hand, couldn't be relied upon to act in even his own best interest. "As

had lost himself in his true home: the beautiful, and infinitely consoling, realm of thought alone.

Einstein knew that its central thesis was wrong. Why? Because he knew in his very bones that there could be no reason, nor any special purpose, for a Divinity. Mankind had made it all up out of whole cloth because, at bottom, everyone was afraid of the dark, afraid of ultimate extinction, afraid to face the fact that individual lives meant nothing in the grand scheme

They were like a million glistening grains of sugar on a black velvet cloth, and the waning moon shone like a Saracen's blade.

What men could wantonly do to each other, in the name of nation or faith or ideology, was unthinkable.

had to tread lightly, and with care. In my haste, I stumbled over one or two of the houseboys, who grumbled and rolled over, and once in my study, I unlocked the case that holds my Colt rifle. Unreliable as it is, it still affords the best and

Though they have not the capacity to reply, I refuse to believe that our pets have no comprehension

Evil is everywhere and nowhere at the same time these days. You only have to read the papers to know there's no escaping it.

Saint Anthony the Anchorite?

I do not know how the Third World War will be fought, but I can tell you what they will use in the Fourth—rocks." —Albert Einstein,

Lucas watched the boy hop back onto the street and hold out the tinfoil for his friends' inspection.

Three fourteen." "Thank

The world had been constructed along bloody lines, of that there was no doubt, and it remained a puzzle at least as baffling as the unified field theory he had been seeking so long.

Simone looked down at the urn in her hands. True, it was heavier than she'd expected, but considering all that it held, lighter than it should have been, too. An entire life was contained inside it. A life now reduced to ash and bone.

only there were a way, he thought, that every living creature could survive without doing injury to any other. The world had been constructed along bloody lines, of that there was no doubt, and it remained a puzzle at least as baffling as the unified field theory he had been seeking so long.

nationwide, including the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He also served as visiting lecturer in literature at Claremont McKenna College for six years. A native of Evanston, Illinois, Masello

jockey was whipping it mercilessly, but the horse was falling farther behind every second. And the black one, a frisky colt, was simply holding its own, hoping to make it to the finish line without any greater exertion. Nightingale's Song, however, was not spent at all; indeed, the horse seemed only

But Einstein knew that its central thesis was wrong. Why? Because he knew in his very bones that there could be no reason, nor any special purpose, for a Divinity. Mankind had made it all up out of whole cloth because, at bottom, everyone was afraid of the dark, afraid of ultimate extinction, afraid to face the fact that individual lives meant nothing in the grand scheme of a vast and utterly indifferent cosmos.