The world of the terminally ill is the world of neither the living nor the dead. I have watched others since I watched my father, and always with a sense of their strangeness. They sit and speak, and are spoken to, and listen, and even smile, but in spirit they have already moved away from us and there is no way we can enter their shadowy no-man’s-land.

We English are good at forgiving our enemies; it releases us from the obligation of liking our friends.

History, which interprets the past to understand the present and confront the future is the least rewarding discipline for a dying species.

The greatest mystery of all is the human heart.

Of all the things that human beings did together, the sexual act was the one with the most various of reasons.

however long we have to live, there are never enough springs.

The weekend break had begun with the usual resentment and had continued with half-repressed ill humour. It was, of course, his fault. He had been more ready to hurt his wife's feelings and deprive his daughter than inconvenience a pub bar full of strangers. He wished there could be one memory of his dead child which wasn't tainted with guilt and regret.