Mary Doria Russell

The sign of a good decision is the multiplicity of reasons for it.

— Mary Doria Russell

“There's a series of sculptures there by Michelangelo that you should see. They are called The Captives. Out of a great formless…

— Mary Doria Russell

“Once I told Ha�anala about the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. . . . I told her how Abraham bargained with God…

— Mary Doria Russell

“Celestina Giuliani learned the word "slander" at her cousin's baptism.”

— Mary Doria Russell

“The new fashions sold in department stores had thrown skilled American seamstresses out of work, you see. They’d been displaced by immigrant…

— Mary Doria Russell

Maybe that's the way to tell the dangerous men from the good ones. A dreamer of the day is dangerous when he…

— Mary Doria Russell

“The trick is not to care. I have a perfect indifference to winning.”

— Mary Doria Russell

“The mission, he thought, probably failed because of a series of logical, reasonable, carefully considered decisions, each of which seemed like a…

— Mary Doria Russell

“By comparison he could read her like an illustrated children's story.”

— Mary Doria Russell

The trouble with illusions is that you aren't aware you have any until they are taken away from you.

— Mary Doria Russell

“The world is filled with unreasonable hate. What's wrong with unreasonable love?”

— Mary Doria Russell

“One thing I can say for certain. There�'s just no telling whom God will take a liking to.”

— Mary Doria Russell

“The irony is that each new war begins in hope: hope of restoring lost honor, hope of redressing injustices and reclaiming tarnished…

— Mary Doria Russell

“In the past few years, he’d worked as a part-time policeman in a string of Kansas cow towns. Each time he was…

— Mary Doria Russell

When it comes down to it, I don't have much in the way of advice to offer you, but here it is:…

— Mary Doria Russell

Love is a debt, she thought. When the bill comes, you pay in grief.

— Mary Doria Russell

“You know how people say, Don't borrow trouble? Well, said Morgan, I guess it's the opposite of that. Doc is borrowing happiness.”

— Mary Doria Russell

I believe in God the way I believe in quarks. People whose business it is to know about quantum physics or religion…

— Mary Doria Russell

Wisdom begins when you discover the difference between "That doesn't make sense" and "I don't understand.

— Mary Doria Russell

“You know what I think? Ten percent of any group of human beings are shitheads. Catholics, Jews. Germans, Italians. Pilots, priests. Teachers,…

— Mary Doria Russell

“Distressing to be hated because of lies, isn't it." (Mirella) "Especially when there are so many legitimate reasons to be hated." (Schramm)”

— Mary Doria Russell

Maybe if I'd studied writing instead of anthropology, I'd be more sensible. You know - pick a genre, follow the rules, stay…

— Mary Doria Russell

“Lemme tell ya something, sweetface. I have been married at least four times, to four different men.” She watched him chew that…

— Mary Doria Russell

“You know what’s the most terrifying thing about admitting that you’re in love?...You put yourself in harm’s way and you lay down…

— Mary Doria Russell

John Henry Holliday didn't have a mother to love him when he was grown, so I have taken him for my own.…

— Mary Doria Russell