“To dream a garden and then to plant it is an act of independence and even defiance to the greater world.”

“Often he vanished for days down the spiral staircase into the engine-room to overhaul the weary machinery, leaving me with a curt note tacked to his then-favourite aspen, the Aspen Laura-Anne, a white-limbed thing with noisy leaves: 'A due-south drift, please, love, for a day or two, n'est-ce pas?”

“Finally when he climbed below deck after dark, wondering where his dinner was, perhaps with a storm come up and rough seas and blinding rains, I'd sulk and lure him into the warm and steamy darkness and from the hairs of his warm body I'd breed a myriad smiling, sparkle-eyed one-year-olds, my broods, my flocks. In the churning seas, below the waves, together inside our hammock woven in coarse sailcloth by Unguentine's deft hands, a spherical webbed sack which hung and swivelled between the two walls of our bedroom, we would spin round and round with lapping tongues and the soft suction of lips, whirling, our amorous centrifuge, all night long, zipped inside against the elements. Now, years and years later, those nights, the thought and touch of them is enough to make me throw myself down on the ground and roll in the dust like a hen nibbled by mites, generating clouds, stars and all the rest.”

“When you want to encourage a greater sense of responsibility in others (and yourself), emphasize the anticipation of accomplishment, not the penalties for failure.”

“We have all been expelled from the Garden, but the ones who suffer most in exile are those who are still permitted to dream of perfection.”

“When I was little – eight or nine – I used to scare myself by looking up at the stars. You can see hundreds, thousands. The more I looked, the more I could see. Have you ever done it?”Josie shakes her head.“On really clear nights you can see the Milky Way… and the world suddenly seems so small. And I thought, if the world is that small then I must be just a speck, smaller than a speck, totally insignificant in a universe I couldn’t even begin to understand. So I chose to believe that I do matter, that everyone matters.” The waitress leans back in the chair and laughs at herself. “And, yes, I do realise it makes absolutely no sense at all, before you say anything.”From the story 'Omelette”

“So I think when you tap into something that you really want to do, you have to fight for it, even if the fight is with yourself.”