“I wonder if we should add a box to tick off -- Reason for travel: creepy planetary conquest... no, I suppose not.”
“I love the ritual of drawing up lists, and there's something wonderfully satisfying about ticking tasks off.”
“Are you decent?" Tick-Tick called through the door.I said what I was supposed to: "No, but I'm dressed.”
“I wonder what it is about a certain novel that ticks the boxes for a reader. I mean, for me, a story can have the most fascinating plot in the world, but if the narrator's voice is dull, then the plot counts for nothing. For me, authorial charm is everything.”
“Tradition is the living faith of the dead, traditionalism is the dead faith of the living. And, I suppose I should add, it is traditionalism that gives tradition such a bad name.”
“It is the conquest of this fear that adds half the charm to climbing.”