I'd like to impregnate her with a warm smile, listen to my children call her "mummy", be a comfort to her in her old age. - Christopher Wood

The crowd pressed round the dais and the band broke into the national anthem. 'Broke into' was the wrong expression. They ransacked it. Stone closed his eyes and clenched his fists to stop himself laughing as the wailing brass savaged his eardrums.

The trouble is, Richard, that you always think you can alter people. You say, Oh, yes, he's a little weak and I can't stand the way he hums to himself when he's shaving but when we live together I'll change that, we'll grow together, but you never do. All that happens is that the little things are symptomatic of bigger things and they become more and more important.

One day, thought Stone, there will be a war and when you get to the front you will last five minutes before someone puts a bullet in your back.