I knew I was breaking about a dozen laws but I guess I had different attitudes to stuff like that since the war. Laws were for the stupid the immature the irresponsible. The inflexible and the narrow-minded. The prejudiced. The obsessive. The lazy and careless and selfish and spoilt. The violent.

We'd thought that we were among the first humans to invade this basin, but humans had invaded everything, everywhere. They didn't have to walk into a place to invade it.

There are some things that once you've lost, you never get back. Innocence is one. Love is another. I guess childhood is a third.

At that age you think boys have as much personality as coat hangers and, you don't notice their looks. Then you grow up.

Sometimes I think I'd rather be frightened than bored. At least when you're frightened you know you're alive.

The world was quickly forgetting us. And there was little news to report.

My pen.’ Funny, I wrote that without noticing. ‘The torch’, ‘the paper’, but ‘my pen’. That shows what writing means to me, I guess. My pen is a pipe from my heart to the paper. It’s about the most important thing I own.