“One of the hardest things about being alive is being with other people.”

“Gradually the feeling wears off, and I feel swamped again by the inexplicable pettiness of being alive.”

“I'd become more adept at being with other people; I'd lowered my expectations of them and learned to let my mind drift into neutral when they spoke.”

“Have you ever been lonely? No, neither have I. Solitary, yes. Alone, certainly. But lonely means minding about being on your own. I've never minded about it.”

“This is how most people live: alive, but not conscious; conscious but not aware; aware, but intermittently.”

“One thing about London is that when you step out into the night, it swallows you.”

“If not just the brain but the quirks that made the individual were composed of recycled matter only, it was hard to be sure where the edges of one such being ended and another person began.”