“Individual customs and taboos do sometimes present particular problems - the Dennash, for example, have various rituals associated with passing faecal matter that require considerable space and equipment, as well as a priest.”

“He imagined that the great dark abyss of space was alive and that he might attract its attention if he stared too long into it - that it might twist and stir and fix its pitiless gaze upon him.”

“I had them running for two months once, so about one-fifty billion miles a second - those big numbers, sometimes they seem to stare right back at you, don't they?”

“Louie liked watching rain - it was always so sad and interesting at the same time, like sitting with a friend who was crying.”

“That is not grease upon your person, Mr Gage, it is blood - blood from the endless fight to steal power from a miserly and begrudging universe.”

“Time passed. Art came off the walls and became rituals. Ritual became religion. Religion spawned science. Science led to big business. And big business, if it continues on its present, mindless trajectory, could land those lucky enough to survive its ultimate legacy back into caves again.”

“For them not to have fucked then and there would have required such a reversal of the laws of nature as to cause Newton to spin in his coffin and NASA to discontinue the space program.”