I think reality is over-rated

...and once again Dexter is struck by how easy conversation can be when no-one is in their right mind

Don’t keep fighting battles that are already lost.

I really was a terrible actor. I did it for years in my twenties because it was like being at university again.

This might sound really foolish, but when I came to Edinburgh in 1988 I had spent nearly all my life living south of Bristol, and I was just amazed that a city like Edinburgh was actually in the British isles.

The city had defeated her, just like they said it would. Like some overcrowded party, no one had noticed her arrival, and would notice if she left.

From an evolutionary point of view, most emotions - fear, desire, anger - serve some practical purpose, but nostalgia is a useless, futile thing because it is a longing for something that is permanently lost . . . .