“We're all teased or pressured into conforming to the all-levelling social norms of mediocrity.”

“Welcome to Level 2. Or, as it is sometimes affectionately referred to by the Friends: God's Little Joke.”

“I? This is the very root of all evil.”

“There was a great joke that was forever doing the rounds in the jail and it was probably funny not because it had a humorous punchline but because it was so very true at a deep psychological level. Put anyone in that jail and soon enough they'd actually become a cruel, twisted, sadistic and heartless thug. And some of the prisoners were just as bad.”

“All those old myths and legends and fairytales didn't just appear out of nowhere for no good reason, you know.”

“When it came to dealing with feral dissidents, there was only one unwritten law that superseded all others: "An' it secure a conviction, do what thou wilt.”

“Maybe like the never-ending stories within stories of the One Thousand and One Nights, life is dream within dream all the way through?”