I stared at Constance and wondered if, in her way, she wasn't quite, quite mad. Not a neurological madness, not a disease of the mind, but rather a cultural madness, an infection of expectations which corrupted her perception of what should be and what actually was. Under any other circumstances I would have been praised as a genius, an unmitigated hero and quite possibly a model for social reform in stodgy times; but to Constance all these things made me a rebel.

Ours is the fellowship of strangers who know a secret that we cannot express. We are both of us broken, shattered, hollow and alone. Only for the ones we love do we remain, painted dolls in the playhouse of this life.

In the Amazon, you may walk for days without seeing a tree; in Beijing, the air is the colour of a bruise. Three thousand miles of litter floats in the Atlantic Ocean, plastic bags and old nappies, bumping against the side of the ships... I sat before a committee in Brussells and they said, ‘What do you want us to do about it? If we change now, we’ll destroy our own economies,’ and I said, ‘You have destroyed your own world’ Pg66

We live in a land of freedom, and the only freedoms we can choose are to spend, fuck and eat. The rest is taboo. Loner. Slut. Weirdo. Faggot. Whore. Bitch. Druggie. Scrounger. Ugly. Poor. Muslim. Other.

I think... I am asking if you are sure that this thing you are experiencing is happiness. Or, if it is happiness, is it worthy.

Death, as has been established, holds little fear - it is but the flesh. The mind is the source of what we are, and it was the mind that they were determined to destroy.

...the secret to success wasn't about being right, merely about appearing to be more right than everybody else.

...if people were scared of you then you were powerful, and if you were powerful, you mattered. Even if you didn't know what mattering was good for.

Perhaps, I suggested, the fate of the universe could briefly take second place to the thorny issue of graduating with honours?He blew loudly between his lips, a liquid sound of contempt. “That,” he exclaimed, “is precisely what’s wrong with academics.

The trick with a truly successful intimidation is not to rely on volume or obscenity, but to cultivate that quiet certainty which informs any listener that your people will do the shouting for you, should the moment come.