According to Dickens, the first rule of human nature is self-preservation and when I forgive him for writing a character as pathetic as Oliver Twist, I'll thank him for the advice.

Because being part of him isn't just anything. It's kind of everything.

Our spirit is mightier than the filth of our memories.

Maybe she'd always been there. Maybe strangers enter your heart first and then you spent the rest of your life searching for them.

Woman, I’m trying to fight here! Or has that escaped your attention?

Strange? I don't think that word comes anywhere near it. My troops are on an overnight camp three hundred kilometres away from here. I had to sleep at the Santangelo penitentiary for pre-pubescent girls.

It's like geographical humor. You just don't get it unless you were there.