“Naming, thinks Jacob, even in ridicule, gives what is named substance.”

“I could tell you a hundred things, thinks Jacob, and nothing at all.”

“Orito banishes all thoughts of Jacob de Zoet, and recalls Jacob de Zoet.”

“A Scot can turn a perfectly decent name into a head-butt.”

“Don't let death, Jacob reproves himself, be your final thought.”

“Problem was, all this is new. In English at school we study a grammar book by a man named Ronald Rideout, read Cider with Rosie, do debates on fox-hunting and memorize ‘I Must Go Down to the Seas Again’ by Jason Masefield. We don’t have to actually think about stuff.”

“A no-name place, as far as I could see, but it had a miserable cafe-cum-garage-cum-funeral parlor shared by a gang of silent locals and many flies who wheeled through the air like drugged angels of death.”