“I would rather risk failure than achieve it without risk.”

“Sometimes it's better to live without a mother than not to live at all.”

“Happiness, it has been observed, is best achieved by those who have been most unhappy heretofore.”

“Sometimes I can see colour without opening my eyes. I saw that Billy's heart was no colour and every colour. Like water or diamonds or crystals, it's pure and reflects the light.”

“There is nothing so minute or inconsiderable that I would not rather know it than not know it.”

“I looked at her moonskin face her pansy eyes and her cobweb hair and I knew I would go on giving her one last chance for ever.”

“We walked back the way we came, and even though it was dark there were no lights burning inside the houses. They were like people without hearts; raspberry tarts without the jam.”