“Striking up conversations with strangers is something like extreme sports for autistic people.”

“It is remarkable, the lines that connect people. You can strike up a conversation with someone, a stranger even, and discover that you have a friend in common, that your aunts were from the same town, or that his best friend can grease your way into Bhutan. It seems on those occasions that we are all like strands of DNA, spun around each other in a double helix.”

“Fundraising is an extreme sport!”

“...good-Samaritanism in London is considered an extreme sport - like base-jumping or crocodile-wrestling.”

“Alexey Alexandorivich had seen nothing striking or improper in the fact that his wife was sitting with Vronsky at a separate table, in eager conversation with him about something. But he noticed that to the rest of the party this appeared to be something striking and improper. He made up his mind that he must speak of it to his wife.”

“I’m into extreme sports. Well, just one—cuddling.”