“It was cold on that Monday, January 23rd, when a little boy was born, in case you haven't heard. An infant that would become the future Dr. Jim. And all the people of the world would fall in love with him.”

“People would never fall in love if they hadn't heard love talked about.”

“How could you communicate with the future? It was of its nature impossible. Either the future would resemble the present, in which case it would not listen to him; or it would be different from it, and his predicament would be meaningless.”

“That’s how it is with infants. The minute the pain’s gone, so are the tears. If more people would do that, the world would be a happier place.”

“Asa had a sharp understanding of the future--that is, a time when this would be past. Time was rushing through and around him, he almost heard it whistling, and this awareness rounded the world somehow and made it sweet.”

“There was colour everywhere you looked. Colour and beauty and she understood how desperately Lockie would have missed his home. Under the table in that cold stark kitchen he would have held on to what he had known all his life and it would have helped him hold on to himself. That was what you did when you couldn’t see a way out; you held on to the past, hoping it would become the future. You grabbed on to the good stuff and tried to believe that everything would be okay again. It was stupid but it was human nature.”