“So many people say they want a new life, but then they take the new one they get every morning for granted. Don’t do this.”

“In 1979 the New York Times reported that in many {New York Subway} stations, the signs are so confusing that one is tempted to wish they were not there at all - a wish that is, in fact, granted in numerous stations and on all too many of the subway cars themselves.”

“We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life.”

“I hate technology. It provides so many different channels of loneliness. Every time you check your email and don’t see a new message, you know that, even though people have the ability to contact you at any time of the day from anywhere on the planet, no one is interested in doing so. Phones are constant reminders that 160 people you know fairly well have nothing to say to you most of the time.”

“Too many questions had been left unanswered. Every day there were new rumours saying that the Kamari numbers were growing. Nick wondered why so many people were joining them.”

“At least forty million Americans can't read and write, according to this morning's New York Times. That is six times as many illiterates as there are people of Armenian descent anywhere! So many of them and so few of us!”