“This was the time when the rush for the spoils filled a corner of the forest with the yelping of hounds, the cracking of whips, the flaring of torches. The appetites let loose were satisfied at last, shamelessly, amid the sound of crumbling neighbourhoods and fortunes made in six months. The city had become an orgy of gold and women.”

“When the Japanese mend broken objects, they aggrandize the damage by filling the cracks with gold. They believe that when something's suffered damage and has a history it becomes more beautiful.”

“I was an idiot,” were my mother’s last words. I’ll never know what she meant because I wasn't there when she died. I am left with unanswered questions while I grieve for a woman I had barely spoken to during the last six months of her life. In fact, by the time I found out she had six months to live we’d been estranged for almost a year.”

“If sarcasm were gold, she would have just made her fortune.”

“Then set the hounds loose, boy - it's time to kick demonic ass!”

“I’ve had a rough six months, okay?” she cried. “Little Blue was my last friend,and frankly the last time his batteries ran out I had a fleeting moment of panicthat he’d been compromised!”