David Mitchell

"I find a certain comfort,' confesses Marinus, 'in humanity's helplessness."

"Always, it is the poor people who pay. And always, it is the poor people's women who pay the most."

"Trees, their incremental gymnastics and noisy silence, are another wonder of Outside to me."

"If losers can exploit what their adversaries teach them, yes, losers can become winners in the long term."

"The body is the outermost layer of the mind."

"The novelist is more like a pregnant woman who delivers her own child unaided. A messy procedure, with lots of groaning."

"Cynicism can blind one to subtler virtues."

"The potatoes were starch grenades. The canned carrots were revolting because that is their nature."

"We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love."

"A weapon men use against women is the refusal to take them seriously."