And it was at moments like this that she had to remind herself that she was in love with him, or had once been in love with him, a long time ago.

Failure and unhappiness is easier because you can make a joke out of it.

I read a lot of F. Scott Fitzgerald. I love 'Tender is the Night,' and its atmosphere of doomed romance. He was one of the greatest prose stylists, with a wonderfully clear but lyrical quality.

Envy was just the tax you paid on success.

Alice doesn't seem to mind because she's laughing too, and biting her lip, all doe-eyed, and tossing her freshly washed hair, and Norton tosses his lovely, glossy hair back, and she tosses her hair in return, and he tosses his, and she tosses hers, and it;s like some mating ritual on a wildlife program.

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

At university, I used to write silly little sketches and monologues, but never fiction.