Hoping is what people do when they're too lazy to do anything else. - Tim Winton

Sometimes she couldn't think what jerrybuilt frame was holding her together. It wasn't willpower anymore. She'd gone past that lately. She only had will enough to make everything else work, these days. There was never enough left for her. She was like that blessed truck of Lester's, running on an empty sump.

There isn't one thing in the world hot and hard as knowing there's someone waiting, coming, pressing, wanting you.

You've got mean, Oriel." She sniffs. "It is the war that's done it to you?" "It's all war," she said. "What is?" "I don't know. Everythin. Raisin a family, keepin yer head above water. Life. War is our natural state." "Well, struggle maybe," said Lester. "No, no, it's war.