“For all the things we say to our children for their own good, very little good ever comes of it.”

“In some ways I liked the struggle better, I think. It clarified what was important.”

“How women defeat one another; how need defeats women.”

“Both carried, despite their martial postures, an aura of sorrow, though ghosts of smiles flickered across their faces. They would have recognized one another from a mere turn of the head observed from hundreds of yards away on a moonless night in January.”

“Why is it that voices break hearts?”

“What was she to say? "The prodigal has returned? The mutineer wishes to be reinstated? The subordinate, having gone to a great deal of trouble to prove her commander wrong, has come back and promises to be a good little subordinate hereafter, or at least until next time?”

“What do you think of boybands?"I avoided eye contact, put my hands in my pockets, and shrugged."Not my thing, really." What was he getting at?He chortled, and continued. "They are all the same. They've all got a lead singer whose head is stuck up his own arse, then a hard one who gets into trouble, an ugly one who wants to be taken seriously, and always, without exception, there's a gay one.”