“If you must know, I don’t talk about myself because no one ever cared enough to listen. (Jack)What do you mean? (Lorelei)Think about it, Lorelei. How many times a day do you ask someone how they’re doing? Their world may have just shattered and yet they look up and say, ‘Fine, thank you, and you?’ No one cares to hear other people’s problems. ’Twas a lesson I learned early in life. (Jack)”

“Why? (Lorelei)Because I…(Jack)You? (Lorelei)I…(Jack)For an eloquent man, Captain Rhys, you seem to be stymied for an answer. (Lorelei)Lorelei, I don’t want any other man to ever touch you. (Jack)”

“You’re not like other people and it pains me to see you do something so common when I know there’s much more to you than that. (Jack)How do you know? (Lorelei)I see it every time I look at you. You have a passion for life that burns so bright it almost singes me to be near it. Every time I see you suppress that fire it pains me. I don’t want anything to extinguish that fire. (Jack)”

“They’re true, aren’t they? (Lorelei)I guess it depends on whom you ask. What I’ve learned over the years is that truth is never so easy. And every person sees a different reality. (Jack)”

“People say to the mentally ill, ‘You know so many people think the world of you.’ But when they don’t like themselves they don’t notice anything. They don’t care about what people think of them. When you hate yourself, whatever people say it doesn’t make sense. ‘Why do they like me? Why do they care about me?’ Because you don’t care about yourself at all.”

“Jack stares at me blankly. ‘A what?’ he asks. I choke back the laugh. ‘A boy. You know? A Y-chromosome holder? You don’t seem to notice them as much as you do the X-carriers.’ ‘What are you talking about?’ Jack asks, ‘A boy? She’s just a kid.’ I hesitate, wondering how Jack is only just doing the maths on this one now. ‘She’s seventeen. She’s not a kid anymore.’ Jack looks like he’s about to go all Incredible Hulk and burst out of his clothes before rampaging through the bar. He jumps off the stool. ‘If any boy ever lays a finger on my sister, I’m going to kill him,’ he says. Again I stare at him in silence, thinking of all the girls Jack has laid fingers and much more of his anatomy on besides. Poor Lila. If she ever wants to have a shot at a normal life, as in one that doesn’t require a vow of celibacy, she needs to stay in London.”