The government was to raise the duty on cheese to 83 percent, an unpopular move that would doubtless have the more militant citizens picketing cheese shops.

People don't change just because you know more about them.

Apart from the faint odor of ink that pervaded the scene, it might have been real.

Mr. McGregor's a nasty piece of work, isn't he? Quite the Darth Vader of children's literature.

I still feel threatened by academics, but my books have a lot of academic in-jokes and everybody assumes I went to university and studied English.

Don't ever call me mad, Mycroft. I'm not mad. I'm just ... well, differently moraled, that's all.

To each our own Hamlet.