“We cut a pack of cards called historical context- our generation, Sixsmith, cut tens, jacks and queens. Adrian's cut threes, fours, and fives. That's all.”

“We are both busy people, so let's cut the small talk.”

“Temple of the Rat King. Ark of the Soot God. Sphincter of Hades. Yes, King's Cross Station, where, according to Knuckle Sandwich, a blow job costs only five quid - any of the furthest-left three cubicles in the men's lavvy downstairs, twenty-four hours a day.”

“All revolutions are the sheerest fantasy until they happen; then they become historical inevitabilities.”

“... Ethical cyberexplorers are responsible, yeah? We are friendly ghosts in the machine, not poltergeists or hooligans. We are a growing breed. Over sixty-five percent of top-flight systems explorers are ethical."Ai gives Suga a black look. "And over eighty-five percent of all statistics are made up on the spot.”

“Human life, Borges said, is a cascade of possible directions, and we take only one, or we perceive that we take only one—which is how novels are written, too. You start with a blank page, and the first word opens up possibilities for the second word. If your first word is Call, those second two or three could be a doctor or it could be me Ishmael. It could be Call girls on Saturday nights generally cost more than . . . The second sentence opens up a multitude of third sentences, and on we go through that denseness of choices taken and choices not taken, swinging our machetes.”

“Fantasy. Lunacy.All revolutions are, until they happen, then they are historical inevitabilities.”