The conflict is not between Christianity and Islam or between East and West - instead, it is between stupid people and other stupid people.

You are very clever,' said the old man shyly. 'I would like to eat your brains, one day,' For some reason the books of etiquette that Daphne's grandmother had forced on her didn't quite deal with this. Of course, silly people would say to babies, 'You're so sweet I could gobble you all up!', but that sort of nonsense seemed less funny when it was said by a man in war paint who owned more than one skull. Daphne, cursed with good manners, settled for, 'It's very kind of you to say so.

The elevator shaft was a kind of heat sink. Hot food was cold by the time it arrived. Cold food got colder. No one knew what would happen to ice cream, but it would probably involve some rewriting of the laws of thermodynamics.

And what had he wanted? He'd never sat down to think about it. But mostly, he wanted yesterday to be different from today.

Even the blind and meek and voiceless have gods.

Don't do anything I wouldn't do, if you ever find anything I wouldn't do.

It is at this point that normal language gives up, and goes and has a drink.