If you're going to have a character appear in a story long enough to sell a newspaper, he'd better be real enough that you can smell his breath.

The world is full of places to which I want to return

He thought he suddenly understood. For the Lincon-shire sergeant-major the word Peace meant that a man could stand up on a hill. For him it meant someone to talk to.

It was an odd friendship, but the oddnesses of friendships are a frequent guarantee of their lasting texture.

Yes, a war is inevitable. Firstly, there's you fellows who can't be trusted. And then there's the multitude who mean to have bathrooms and white enamel. Millions of them; all over the world. Not merely here. And there aren't enough bathrooms and white enamel in the world to go round.

Why can't people have what they want? The things were all there to content everybody; yet everybody has the wrong thing.

Higher than the beasts, lower than the angels, stuck in our idiot Eden.