Self-pity is an ignoble emotion, but we all feel it, and the orthodox critical line that it represents some kind of artistic flaw is dubious, a form … - Nick Hornby

By the early seventies I had become an Englishman — that is to say, I hated England just as much as half my compatriots seemed to do.

I'm sorry, but there's no disturbed mental balance here, my friend. I'd say he got it just right. Bad thing upon bad thing upon bad thing... Surely that's fair enough? Surely the coroner's report should read, "He took his own life after sober and careful contemplation of the fucking shambles it had become."

Single mothers — bright, attractive, available women, thousands of them all over London — they were the best invention Will had ever heard of.