“I don't go to school, I don't have parents, I came from the sea to be your husband.”

“It was interesting, how much of adult life consisted of pretending.”

“Also: people pretended not to want what they wanted. Pretending tried to hide the will. That was the secret of adult life, the undisclosed motor of the whole thing. People wanted what they wanted. They did what they could to get it. It wasn't complicated. Kenny knew that was the last step he needed to take before he could be an adult: he had to learn what he wanted, then had to learn to want what he wanted.”

“It takes knowledge and experience to say precisely and consisely what is true and what is needed. Scholarship often excels in lofty learning and deep digging to emphasise what we knew all along. Adrian Hawkes' little book, based on real life, bring us what so many don't know and greatly need to know. I would not be ashamed to put it alongside many weighty volumes on my study shelves.”

“The only difference now, for what it's worth, is that I know that these things don't matter. I know that I don't have to know anything, and I know that I don't have to fell frightened of not knowing-I just have to be here”

“I don't know what I'm saying, really, but I guess it's like having a kid, though I don't have any kids. It's yours, you made it, and no matter what happens, you have that pride of ownership. You love it, even it it didn't amount to much.”

“I blame my parents. It's their fault for raising me with a little guilt-demon living in my stomach. I can't ever just do something without having to worry about whether it's right. Now, don't worry, I can usually overcome it.”