When most people said "I'm psychic, you see," they meant "I have an overactive but unoriginal imagination/wear black nail varnish/talk to my budgie;" when Anathema said it, it sounded as though she was admitting to a hereditary disease which she'd much prefer not to have.

What a refreshing mind you have, young man. There really is nothing quite like total ignorance, is there?

I believe that all men are just overgrown boys with deep problems communicating.

I think . . . I said things to Silas. He'll be angry.' 'If he didn't care about you, you couldn't upset him,' was all she said.

So," he asked. "How's death?" "Hard," she said. "It just keeps going.

I love making things. I love building things. I love the idea that something's in the world that wasn't there before.

I saw the world I had walked since my birth and I understood how fragile it was, that the reality was a thin layer of icing on a great dark birthday cake writhing with grubs and nightmares and hunger.