The blame generally has to fall somewhere, Miss Armstrong. Women and the Jews tend to be first in line, unfortunately. - Kate Atkinson

Olivia was her only beautiful child. Julia, with her dark curls and snub nose, was pretty but her character wasn't, Sylvia — - poor Sylvia, what could you say? And Amelia was somehow ...bland, but Olivia, Olivia was spun from light. It seemed impossible that she was Victor's child, although, unfortunately, there was no doubting the fact. Olivia was the only one she loved, although God knows she tried her best with the others. Everything was from duty, nothing from love. Duty killed you in the end.

How quickly life could dissolve into its more ugly elements.

The whole edifice of civilization turned out to be constructed from an unstable mix of quicksand and imagination.