When you are with somebody you love the smallest, smallest things can be so important, so amusing because love transforms the world, everything. And was that what had happened?

Alexander McCall Smith, The Right Attitude to Rain

We shall change all that...because it is possible to change the world, if one is determined enough, and if one sees with sufficient clarity just what has to be changed.

Alexander McCall Smith, The Kalahari Typing School for Men

If your ceiling should fall down, then you have lost a room, but gained a courtyard. Think of it that way.

Alexander McCall Smith, The Right Attitude to Rain

People were forever digging up events that had taken place a long time ago. And what was the point in doing this if the effect was merely to poison the present?

Alexander McCall Smith, Tears of The Giraffe