“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. ”

“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.”

“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.”

“Too much self-esteem, thought Simon: the real curse of our age.”

“But we’ll stumble on, she and I, into our messy future. And we’ll have each other”

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

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