“Traffic in Joburg is like the democratic process. Every time you think it's going to get moving and take you somewhere, you hit another jam.”

“They burned this neighbourhood down in the early 1900s to prevent the spread of bubonic plague, and it occurs to me that they should consider doing it again, to purge the blight of well-meaning hipsters desperately trying to paint it rainbow”

“you're deluding yourself that you have some deep spiritual connection, like you didn't just read it on Wikipedia. There's a difference between tradition and culture.”

“You can map out a whole city according to the weight of memory, like pins on the homicide board tracking the killer's movements. But the connections get thicker and denser and more complicated all the time.”

“This is my idea of family, actually, a sticky morass you can't chew your way out of.”

“Time heals. Crushes let up. Splinters work their way out. Doesn't mean they don't leave scars that itch.”

“There are patterns because we try to find them. A desperate attempt at order because we can't face the terror that it might all be random.”

“You have to get up pretty early in the morning to invent the news.”

“She laughs, and that's really all he wanted.”

“Next time, can you ask him to bring cookies? I don't like to put up with that level of insane unless there's some kind of high-calorie compensation.”

“Dope don't have no sympathy, not for love or family, definitely not for fear. Put dope and the devil up against each other in the ring, and dope will win out. Every single time.”