It wasn't so easy though, ending the war. A war is a huge fire; the ashes from it drift far, and settle slowly.

It doesn't really matter what "genre" your book is. What matters is that it's a good book of its kind. Whatever that kind may be.

Optimism means better than reality; pessimism means worse than reality. I'm a realist.

Blondes are like white mice, you only find them in cages. They wouldn’t last long in nature. They’re too conspicuous.

... all this talking, this rather liquid confessing, was something I didn't think I could ever bring myself to do. It seemed foolhardy to me, like an uncooked egg deciding to to come out of its shell: there would be a risk of spreading out too far, turning into a formless puddle.

But the adjectives change,” said Jimmy. “Nothing’s worse than last year’s adjectives.

The world is being run by people my age, men my age, with falling-out hair and health worries, and it frightens me. When the leaders were older than me I could believe in their wisdom, I could believe they had transcended rage and malice and the need to be loved. Now I know better. I look at the faces in newspapers, in magazines, and wonder: what greeds, what furies drive them on?