And it occurred to him that there were two parts to being a better person. One part was thinking about other people. The other part was not giving a toss what other people thought.

I knew there was a story; once you find a dog with a fork through it, you know there's a story there.

...and I went into the garden and lay down and looked at the stars in the sky and made myself negligible.

I have very fond memories of swimming in Walden Pond when we lived in Boston. You'd swim past a log and see all these turtles sunning themselves. Slightly disturbing if you thought about how many more were swimming around your toes, but also rather wonderful.

And what he meant was that maths wasn't like life because in life there are no straightforward answers in the end

If you enjoy math and you write novels, it's very rare that you'll get a chance to put your math into a novel. I leapt at the chance.

..and only sticks and stones can break my bones.