Most people muddled through events and only in retrospect realized their significance.

You can step in the same river but the water will always be new.

Ursula craved solitude but she hated loneliness, a conundrum that she couldn’t even begin to solve.

Sometimes it was harder to change the past than it was the future.

Alternate history fascinates me, as it fascinates all novelists, because 'What if?' is the big thing.

What did you do when the worst thing that could happen to you had already happened - how did you live life then? You had to hand it to Theo Wyre, just carrying on living required a strength and courage that most people didn't have.

I can't help but think that it's an unfortunate custom to name children after people who come to sticky ends. Even if they are fictional characters, it doesn't bode well for the poor things. There are too many Judes and Tesses and Clarissas and Cordelias around. If we must name our children after literary figures then we should search out happy ones, although it's true they are much harder to find.