“Her book was filled with centaurs because she had not fully grasped the complexity of actual people, actual horses.”

“She also said the wicked people needed love as much as good people and were much better at it.”

“One day after the exams, the teachers sat at their desks correcting papers while the pupils read comics, played chess or cards or talked quietly in groups. Coulter at a desk in front of Thaw turned round and said, "What are ye reading?"Thaw showed a book of critical essays on art and literature.Coulter said accusingly, "You don't read that for fun.""Yes, I read it for fun." "People our age don't read that sort of book for fun. They read it to show they're superior.""But I read this sort of book even when there's nobody around to see me.""That shows you arenae trying to make us think you're superior, you're trying to make yourself think you're superior.”

“Are there many people without illness or disability who sit at home in the evening with clenched fists, continually changing the channel of a television set and wishing they had the courage to roll over the parapet of a high bridge? I bet there are millions of us.”

“People who care nothing for their country's stories and songs,' he said, 'are like people without a past- without a memory- they are half people”

“Every stylistic excess and moral defect which critics conspired to ignore in the author's first books, LANARK and UNLIKELY STORIES, MOSTLY, is to be found here in concentrated form.”

“Baxter knows a lot more than I do, I told her.Yes, said Baxter, but I will never tell people all of it.”