“Lies were lethal, however honourable the intentions of the liar. They deprived people of the opportunity to know the basic facts of their own lives. ”

“Weak people always attack strong people - it's safer. It's weak people who are dangerous, who lash out uncontrollably and hurt you back. Stong people can walk away - no repercussions, you see, if you attack a stong person.”

“Why treat the people closest to you like strangers?”

“He didn't subscribe to the view...that spirituality was a fast track to happiness. He believed the opposite was true: spiritual people suffered more than most.”

“Simon would disapprove, in the way that people who lacked life experience always disapproved of others having adventures they had so far missed out on. ”

“What they'd got was a fat, balding academic who bandied about the phrase "family annihilation", especially when there were cameras pointed at him, and mentioned the titles of books and articles he'd written to anyone who would listen; who blatantly thought he was the mutt's nuts, as Sellers had so aptly put it.”

“You can always, and easily, give somebody the gift of hope and faith, even in the midst of despair.”