“To grow up is to wonder about things; to be grown up is to slowly forget the things you wondered about as a child.”

“But then an old man was discovered impaled in a ditch, and once again his world had started crumbling away beneath his feet. He wondered how long he could keep this up.”

“Society had grown cruel. People who felt they were unwanted or unwelcome in their own country, reacted with aggression. There was no such thing as meaningless violence. Every violent act had a meaning for the person who committed it. Only when you dared accept this truth could you hope to turn society in another direction.”

“You forget what you want to remember and remember what you would prefer to forget.”

“You think you know everything about a person, but the truth often comes as a surprise.”

“We’re always being made promises,’ she said. ‘You make them yourselfand you listen to others giving theirs. Politicians are always goingon about providing a better quality of life for people as they get older,and a health service in which nobody ever gets bedsores. Banks promiseyou high interest rates, some food promises to make you lose weight ifyou eat it, and body creams guarantee old age with fewer wrinkles. Lifeis quite simply a matter of cruising along in your own little boat througha constantly changing but never-ending stream of promises. And howmany do we remember? We forget the ones we would like to remember,and we remember the ones we’d prefer to forget.”

“Letters...People do not write the truth; they write the things that, they believe, you would like to read.”