How did you . . . pass the time?’ Sunday asked. ‘You couldn’t just ching out of it, could you?’ ‘We had a different form of chinging,’ Eunice said. ‘An earlier type of virtual-reality technology, much more robust and completely unaffected by time lag. You may have heard of it. We called it “reading”.

The cards always look different when it's your turn to play them; loaded with subtly different possibilities.

A city's only ever three hot meals away from anarchy.

I think I've reduced the amount of blood in my caffeine system to an acceptable level.

It’s the people who don’t worry—those who never have any doubts that what they’re doing is good and right—they’re the ones that cause the problems.

As the old saying went, the Manhattan Project wasn't built in a day. Or was that Rome? Something to do with Earth, anyway.

Victory loses its meaning without the memory of what you've vanquished.