You need to remember that. If you’re to have decent lives, you have to know who you are and what lies ahead of you, every one of you.

It didn't hurt, did it? When I hit you?" "Sure. Fractured skull. Concussion, the lot..." "But seriously, Kath. No hard feelings, right? I'm awfully sorry. I honestly am.

I started as a songwriter and wanted to be like Leonard Cohen. I've always seen my stories as enlarged songs.

She always wanted to believe in things.

If you were a boy and a girl and you were in love with each other, really, properly in love, and if you could show it, then the people who run Hailsham, they sorted it out for you. They sorted it out so you could have a few years together before you began your donations.

Indeed — why should I not admit it? — in that moment, my heart was breaking.

And if these incidents now seem full of significance and all of a piece, it's probably because I'm looking at them in the light of what came later.