“People were buying milk, or filling their cars with petrol, or even posting letters. And what no one else knew was the appalling weight of the thing they were carrying inside. The superhuman effort it took sometimes to be normal, and a part of things that appeared both easy and everyday. The loneliness of that.”

“The world was made up of people putting one foot in front of the other; and a life might appear ordinary simply because the person living it had been doing so for a long time.”

“He had felt safe with what he had confided. It had been the same with Queenie. You could say things in the car and know she had tucked them somewhere safe among her thoughts, and that she would not judge him for them, or hold it against him in years to come. He supposed that was what friendship was, and regretted all the years he had spent without it.”

“It surprised him that he was remembering all this. Maybe it was the walking. Maybe you saw even more than the land when you got out of the car and used your feet.”

“Sometimes her words sliced down on his before they had even reached his mouth.”

“Die Leute kauften Milch, tankten ihre Autos auf, brachten Briefe zur Post. Und niemand wusste, welche entsetzliche Last sie mit sich herumschleppten.”

“His shirt, tie, and trousers were folded small as an apology on a faded blue-velvet chair.”