“Down the five ill-disposed wings of Nesfield University, vaulted, machine-carved, echoing and damp, surged conflicting columns of adolescent humanity, a rout of jostling automotive sponges hurried from pool to pool of a knowledge codified, timetabled and approved.”

“Is science the disinterested pursuit of knowledge which the world may apply if it will? Or is it an activity always dependent upon economic and political demands?”

“Five years ago I was a four-stone apology...Today I am two separate gorillas!”

“Capitalism always draws from the cheap labor pool; the profit is greater when the expense is limited”

“One of my greatest strengths is to admit my weaknesses.”

“The vestibule door opens onto a June morning so fine and scrubbed Classira pauses at the threshold as she would at the edge of a pool, watching the turquoise water lapping at the tiles, the liquid nets of sun wavering in the blue depths. As if standing at the edge of a pool she delays for a moment the plunge, the quick membrane of chill, the plain shock of immersion.”

“... in Asian gardens you could look at rock and imagine water, you could gaze at a still pool and believe it had the hardness of rock.”