"In my dreams I ate and I ate my dreams."

"His fate nauseated him. Escaping from the Pale he had at once been entrapped in prison. From birth a black horse had …"

"He waits. (repeated throughout novel)"

"‘Yakov Ivanovitch,’ Zina said, pouring herself another glassful of wine which she at once drank down, ‘do you believe…"

"Nobody can burn an idea even if they burn the man."

"The truth is I’m a half-ignorant man. The other half is half-educated."

"‘Little brother,’ he said to Yakov, making the sign of the cross over him, ‘don’t lose hope. The stones of the bridge…"

"He tried desperately to put together a comprehensible sequence of events that had led inevitably from his departure f…"

"Who were they punishing if his life was punishment?"

"It tasted bitter and he blamed existence."