A home filled with nothing but yourself. It's heavy, that lightness. It's crushing, that emptiness.

It's a feature of our age that if you write a work of fiction, everyone assumes that the people and events in it are disguised biography — but if you write your biography, it's equally assumed you're lying your head off.

Your friend is intellectually honourable," Jimmy's mother would say. "He doesn't lie to himself.

I'll make you mine, lovers said in old books. They never said, I'll make you me.

For years I wanted to be older, and now I am.

Those walls and bars are there for a reason,” said Crake. “Not to keep us out, but to keep them in. Mankind needs barriers in both cases.” “Them?” “Nature and God.” “I thought you didn’t believe in God,” said Jimmy. “I don’t believe in Nature either,” said Crake. “Or not with a capital N.

The sands of time are quicksands ... so much can sink into them without a trace.