What must that be like? To be admired before you’ve even said a word, to be desired two or three hundred times a day by people who have absolutely no idea what you’re like?

You've got to stop letting women slip drugs into your mouth, Dex, it's unhygienic. And dangerous. One day it'll be a cyanide capsule.

I'm not the consolation prize, Dex. I'm not something you resort to. I happen to think I'm worth more than that.

For some time now she has had the conviction that life is about to change if only because it must. . . .

A joke was not a single-use item but something you brought out again and again until it fell apart in your hand like a cheap umbrella.

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.

Happyish. Well, happyish isn't so bad.' 'It's the most we can hope for.