The most important thing was that time had passed, pouring thousands of soothing seconds across the island. People need time to deal with the now before it runs away and becomes the then.

His parents called him Youngster. They did this in the subconcious hope that he might take the hint. Wensleydale gave the impression of having been born with a mental age of 47.

Who knows what the future holds.

Banana daiquiris aren't knock-'em-back-by-the-flagon.

All the higher life forms scythed away, just like that. [ . . . ] Nothing but dust and fundamentalists.

They say that the prospect of being hanged in the morning concentrates a man's mind wonderfully; unfortunately, what the mind inevitably concentrates on is that, in the morning, it will be in a body that is going to be hanged.

The world is a globe — the farther you sail, the closer to home you are.