“Diagnoses, Dave thought, were rough guesses, blunt tools, always more inaccurate than they were helpful.”

“he was sick of the accidents, sick to his stomach. It was the darkness workers didn't see things. The shifts were too long, the tools too blunt, the wage too low.And he was the one they blamed.”

“In the past, Pracilla had always thought that the smarter and more successful you were, the more you didn't need other people, the more you could do it all yourself. Pracilla had never asked anyone for anything. Now she was starting to think differently. Maybe the smarter you were, the sooner you recognised you were in trouble and asked for help.”

“Her view of men was one-dimensional, but not inaccurate: men were prisoners of their genitalia and women were the keepers of the keys to paradise.”

“When I was going out with her, it always seemed that her actions were instinctive. But then I was resistant to the whole idea that women were or could be manipulative. This may tell you more about me than it does about her. And even if I were to decide, at this late stage, that she was and always had been calculating, I’m not sure it would help matters. By which I mean: help me.”

“And although I wish his heart were pure gold, I guess I've always known that it's more of the brass variety.”