I read anything that’s going to be interesting. But you don’t know what it is until you’ve read it. Somewhere in a book on the history of false teeth there’ll be the making of a novel.

People are bound to get excited when they see a ten-million-ton starship trying to fly down the street.

Personally, I think the best motto for an educational establishment is: 'Or Would You Rather Be a Mule?'

And sin, young man, is when you treat people like things.

History has a habit of changing the people who think they are changing it

He’s bound to have done something,” Nobby repeated. In this he was echoing the Patrician’s view of crime and punishment. If there was a crime, there should be punishment. If the specific criminal should be involved in the punishment process then this was a happy accident, but if not then any criminal would do, and since everyone was undoubtedly guilty of something, the net result was that, in general terms, justice was done.

She was already learning that if you ignore the rules people will, half the time, quietly rewrite them so that they don't apply to you.