I know this from a film...(scratches head)...some old Hollywood...hmm, haven't read the book Im pretty sure tho...

Now that's "The Maltese Falcon," one of my very favorites.

Your turn.

It's probably my second fave novel.

"It was the last day of July. The long hot summer was drawing to a close; and we, the weary pilgrims of the London pavement, were beginning to think of the cloud-shadows on the corn-fields, and the autumn breezes on the sea-shore."

It's some cultivated Anglais-y thing, perhaps early Forster??

English and Victorian. I'm thinking Hardy or Collins.
The Moonstone?

kendocubano, you're thinking on the right track with Hardy and Collins, but it's not "The Moonstone."

Well, if it's down to Hardy or Collins, it's gotta be Collins, cause that ain't any Hardy I know....so I will go with The Woman in White!

I have read a few other Collins, but I suspect you have gone with a popular novel??

And...you're right!

OK...it's Ishy's time...

"The sky white with heat, the timeless lethargy of the steppes, a bird flapping its wings, unable to progress in the extreme density of the world. Like the bird, we moved forwards with no other point of reference than the remoteness of the plains and a horizon made molten by the flow of overheated air."

A fave modern writer.

All I can think of is "The Sheltering Sky" right now and that's not it.

Couple o' clues.....

It's from the 2000's; the writer is Russian.....

All I can think of now is "Dreams of My Russian Summers" by Andrei Makine, but that was published in the '90s.

Right author, wrong book...

you're a clever chops, aren't ya?

"Dreams of My Russian Summers" is one of my favorite books and Makine one of my favorite authors.

I don't remember the line exactly, but I'd have to guess, "Requiem for a Lost Empire" or "Music of a Life."

If it's not one of those, then I'd just be guessing in the dark and that's not fair of me. I honestly don't remember the line, but it sure does sound like Makine's writing.

It concerns a pilot.......

hell, nobody else is guessing, so if you get it S/S, it's tag to you.

That gave it away: The Earth and the Sky of Jacques Dorme. (I think. I've not read it, but I've read about it.)

New quote?

I'm sorry. I had to go out. Okay, here it is. I have a feeling this one is going to be very easy:

"When the phone rang I was in the kitchen, boiling a potful of spaghetti and whistling along with an FM broadcast of the oveture to Rossini's 'The Thieving Magpie', which has to be the perfect music for cooking pasta."

Sorry S/S, but I don't remember readin' nuthin with no pasta 'n' whistling......sounds like a feminist take on Chandler/ Hammett.......sheesh, I'm really striking out..