By mundane standards, it was a cozy little place, the sort that a real estate listing would call charming, meaning not quite as large as you’d like. - Naomi Novik

I think that a lot of anti-Semitism is historically a deflection of resentment of capital. It’s a deflection of that by the elite onto Jews, who are a convenient population to target. And this was something that happened in Western Europe and Eastern Europe, where the Jewish community became a piggy bank for rulers. These rulers deflected hostility from people who felt themselves being exploited but didn’t understand the system of exploitation.

But I had not known that I was strong enough to do any of those things until they were over and I had done them. I had to do the work first, not knowing.

And I wasn’t old enough to be wise, so I loved her more, not less, because I knew she would be taken from me soon.