The switch had two settings. You could either turn it to AUTO, in which case the awning lowered itself whenever the sun came out, or you could set it to MANUEL [sic], in which case, we assumed, a small, incompetent Spanish waiter came and did it for you.

Pardon me for breathing, which I never do any way so I don’t know why I bother to say it, oh God, I’m so depressed.

He was a dreamer, a thinker, a speculative philosopher... or, as his wife would have it, an idiot.

Nothing travels faster than the speed of light, with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws.

So you can imagine what happens when a mainland species gets introduced to an island. It would be like introducing Al Capone, Genghis Khan and Rupert Murdoch into the Isle of Wight - the locals wouldn't stand a chance.

Oh dear,' says God, 'I hadn't thought of that,' and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.

Even light, which travels so fast it takes most races thousands of years to realize that it travels at all, takes time to journey between the stars.