Call me sentimental, but there's no-one in the world that I'd like to see get dysentery more than you

Everything was fine, and she had the rare, new sensation of being exactly where she wanted to be.

Oh you know me. I have no emotions. I'm a robot. Or a nun. A robot nun.

Sometimes I wish that I hadn't learned how to crochet," I say, and Alice laughs. Obviously she thinks I'm joking, which is maybe for the best.

All young people worry about things, it's a natural and inevitable part of growing up, and at the age of sixteen my greatest anxiety in life was that I'd never again achieve anything as good, or pure, or noble, or true, as my O-level results.

The future rose up ahead of her, a succession of empty days, each more daunting and unknowable than the one before her.

I suppose the important thing is to make some sort of difference,’ she siad. ‘You know, actually change something.’ ‘What, like “change the world”, you mean?’ ‘Not the whole entire world. Just the little bit around you.