“If Caribbean writers have one single unifying theme, it is a strong sense of place, and of home. There is also - always, beneath the humour, which is a West Indian characteristic - a sadness: an awareness of a past that can never really be forgotten, or forgiven.”

“There's always something or someone to do.''But don't you ever find it too much work, Howard?' asks Flora, 'All this dressing and undressing, all these undistinguished climaxes, all this chasing for more of the same, is it really, really, worth the effort?''Of course' [...].”

“With sociology one can do anything and call it work.”

“Maybe one reason so many people have so many problems is that there are so many other people with so many solutions." (Love on a Gunboat")”

“Why is it that married people always say "Come in" when everything they do says "Get out"? They talk about their miseries and then ask you why you're unmarried.”

“Most beds aren't as intimate as people think they are.”

“Marriage, [...], the most advanced form of warfare in the modern world.”