“When most of us hear the word cells, we think biology. I think penitentiary. (It's an occupational hazard.)”

“[To my enemy:] Some are great, some are born great, some have greatness thrust upon them! And then there's you.”

“So what to do? . . . She shook her head impatiently. Choice is a largely delusional concept, her tutor used to say. Whether in politics, morals or shopping, we have far less than we imagine. In the end what we have to do often doesn't even figure on our list of pseudo-options.”

“then I saw that there was a way to hell, even from the gates of heaven.”

“It takes a great deal of courage to stand alone even if you believe in something very strongly.”

“His attitude to physical clues was rather like that of the modern Christian to miracles. They could happen, but probably not just at the moment.”

“The sun shines, snow falls, mountains rise and valleys sink, night deepens and pales into day, but it is only very seldom that we attend to such things. . . . When we are grasping the inexpressible meaning of these things, this is life, this is living. To do this twenty-four hours a day is the Way of Haiku. It is having life more abundantly.”