“Everything starts somewhere, though many physicists disagree. But people have always been dimly aware of the problem with the start of things. They wonder how the snowplough driver gets to work, or how the makers of dictionaries look up the spelling of words.”

“It always amazes me, how swiftly problems can be solved, once you start cutting things off people.”

“How did she end up here, like this? How could there have been so much - so many moments, so many people and things, so many razors and pillows, timepieces and subtle coffins - without her being aware? How did her life live itself without her?”

“Some have ideas. You know how old chickens scratch and gabble. That's how the tales started, all the gossip, the wondering, all the things people said without knowing and then believed, since they heard it with their own ears, from their own lips, each word.”

“A great many people have come up to me and asked how I manage to get so much work done and still keep looking so dissipated.”

“He wondered how many new starts a person was entitled to, how many times one could say it was the other person's fault and truly believe it.”