If there had been no war, perhaps I would have already discovered a lot by now. - Sten Nadolny

In this place they knew him and were aware of how hard he had to strain. He would rather be among strangers who might possibly be more like himself. There had to be such people—perhaps far, far away. And there he would be able to learn more easily how to be fast.

Someday he'd be quicker... to be like the sun, which only seems to wander slowly across the sky, yet whose rays are as quick as the blink of an eye. ...they reach in one instant the most distant mountains.

Large animals, John thought, move more slowly than mice and wasps. Perhaps he was secretly a giant.