“Success is a finished book, a stack of pages each of which is filled with words. If you reach that point, you have won a victory over yourself no less impressive than sailing single-handed around the world.”

“As the words of my book, The Bloodless Revolution, accumulated, I envisaged a parallel growth: the stack of pages they would have to be printed on, thousands of times over; every page representing a slice of forest, a belch of fumes and a squirt of toxic ink.”

“She could smell the pages. She could almost taste the words as they stacked up around her.”

“When you have the chance to fight for victory or a podium finish, you have the motivation to push that extra bit out of yourself.”

“But it was alright, everything was alright, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.”

“Open a book this minute and start reading. Don’t move until you’ve reached page fifty. Until you’ve buried your thoughts in print. Cover yourself with words. Wash yourself away. Dissolve.”

“Fill your house with stacks of books, in all the crannies and all the nooks.”

“There was hardly a page in Markov's book which did not feature the normal law and it cast a spell over me from which I have never fully recovered. Adding to the fascination was the impression that somehow the normal law was the key to mysterious and elusive world of chance phenomena.”

“You see? I know where every single book used to be in the library.' She pointed to the shelf opposite. 'Over there was, which was a hugely popular fishing book and one of a series, I believe.”

“Why tear off a single page when you can throw away the book?”