If, by happiness, you mean the absence of adversity I and all fabricants are the happiest stratum in corpocracy as genomicists insist. However, if happiness means the conquest of adversity or a sense of purpose, or the xercise of one’s will to power, then of all Nea So Copros’s slaves we surely are the most miserable.

I think we think in terms of stories.

People b'lief the world is built so an tellin em it ain't so caves the roofs on their heads'n'maybe yours.

Our lives are not our own. We are bound to others, past and present, and by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future.

Teachers're always using that "in your own words." I hate that. Authors knit their sentences tight. It's their job. Why make us unpick them, just to put it back together more shonkily? How're you s'posed to say Kapellmeister if you can't say Kapellmeister?

Write something every single day, even if it's just three lines. And it doesn't matter if it's any good - just write something every day.

Italians give their city sexes, and they all agree that the sex for a particular city is quite correct, but none of them can explain why. I love that. London's middle-aged and male, respectably married but secretly gay.