“...to many of us prayer is more like talking to a chocolate pudding than participating in an amazing relationship with a living being.”

“Branson ate his salad, and left the rest of his fish untouched, while Grace tucked into his steak and kidney pudding with relish. 'I read a while ago,' he told Branson, 'that the French drink more red wine than the English but live longer. The Japanese eat more fish than the English but drink less wine and live longer. The Germans eat more red meat than the English, and drink more beer and they live longer too. You know the moral of this story? 'No''It's not what you eat or drink - it's speaking English that kills you.”

“When work relationships are reciprocal, ethical leadership emerges for both the executive and the participant unless the executive is trying to control the participant.”

“If you were to live your life like a prayer, every action a sort of prayer, it would be easy to believe that all your thoughts were the words of God. Perhaps they would be.”

“Far too many people—many of them academics, many politicians—continue to jabber about a supposed 'special relationship' between our two countries.I used to think that no such thing existed. Recently, I have become convinced that it does, and that it is in fact a Specially Bad Relationship.”

“Banks felt more alone and further away for having just talked to Sophia than he had before her call. But it was always like that - the telephone might bring you together for a few moments, but there's nothing like it for emphasising distance.”

“Sometimes the silences, the gaps, tell us more than anything else.”