“Perhaps, all these years, the historiographers had been unwilling to recognize history as a spiral, perhaps because a spiral was so difficult to describe. Easier to photograph the spiral from the top, easier to flatten the spring into a coil.”

“You can viddy that everything in this wicked world counts. You can pony that one thing always leads to another. Right right right.”

“And now, talking of praying, I realise sadly that there will be little point in praying for you. You are passing now to a region where you will be beyond the reach of the power of prayer.”

“The intention to act violently is accompanied by strong feelings of physical distress.”

“Well, everything's a lesson, isn't it? Learning all the time, as you could say.”

“What does God want? Does God want goodness or the choice of goodness? Is a man who chooses the bad perhaps in some way better than a man who has the good imposed upon him?”

“And yet, in a sense, in choosing to be deprived of the ability to make an ethical choice, you have in a sense really chosen the good.”

“When we're healthy we respond to the presence of the hateful with fear and nausea.”

“The thrill of theft, of violence, the urge to live easy - is it worth it when we have undeniable proof, yes, yes, incontrovertible evidence that hell exists?”

“You got shook and shook till there was nothing left. You lost your name and your body and your self and you just didn't care.”

“Women thrive on novelty and are easy meat for the commerce of fashion. Men prefer old pipes and torn jackets.”