“But there is nothing enduring in the world, and therefore even joy in the second minute is already not as acute as in the first; in the third minute it becomes still weaker and finally merges unnoticeably with the usual condition of the soul, as a circle on the water, caused by the fall of a pebble, finally merges with the smooth surface.”

“But nothing in India is identifiable, the mere asking of a question causes it to disappear and merge into something else.”

“Thought that can merge wholly into feeling, feeling that can merge wholly into thought - these are the artist's highest joy.”

“During the few minutes that Lewis was away, Morse was acutely conscious of the truth of the proposition that the wider the circle of knowledge the greater the circumference of ignorance.”

“SMS made everything negotiable: hour by hour, minute by minute. There was no such thing as a firm plan or a final schedule.”

“Gloria Anzaldúa, who revolutionised the Chicana writing of her generation, called the border ‘una herida abierta – an open wound – where the Third World grates against the First and bleeds. And before a scab forms, it haemorrhages again, the lifeblood of two countries merging to form a third country – a border culture.”