Hope is an essential thread in the fabric of all fantasies, an Ariadne's thread to guide us out of the labyrinth ... Human beings have always needed hope, and surely now more than ever.

Thinking is a bit uncomfortable, but you'll get used to it. A matter of time and practice.

The dear girl, I fear, may be contemplating some alarming, disruptive perhaps dangerous project. In which case, I would naturally do all in my power to keep her from any such rash or foolhardy enterprise – unless she wished me to accompany her.

The muse in charge of fantasy wears good, sensible shoes. No foam-born Aphrodite, she vaguely resembles my old piano teacher, who was keen on metronomes.

No matter what has happened, you're not a pig-boy; you're an Assistant Pig Keeper!

Eventually, I was sent to Wales and Germany, and after the war, to Paris.

For the deeds of a man, not the words of a prophecy, are what shape his destiny.