Oops, I thought. Oops is an all-purpose word standing for every bit of profanity, blasphemy, and pornographic and scatological execration I could think of.

In war, everyone has their chance to bleed.

I'm not stupid!" In Bean's experience, that was a sentence never uttered except to prove its own inaccuracy.

Apparently the Dutch now prided themselves on being better at queues than the English, which was absurd, because standing cheerfully in line was the English national sport.

I taught you everything you know. But I didn't teach you everything I know.

I need you to be clever, Bean. I need you to think of solutions to problems we haven't seen yet. I want you to try things that no one has ever tried because they're absolutely stupid.

I have lived in the only decades I could have lived in, and hope to live through at least a few more.