English rain feels obligatory, like paperwork. It dampens already damn days and slicks the stones.

This is England, " he explained. "Tell someone it's a procedure, and they'll believe you. The pointless procedure is one of our great natural resources.

Shame is like melting. You can actually feel your muscles sag and drop, as if your body is preparing you to crawl, or possibly ooze, to the nearest exit.

The universe has a much greater imagination than we do, which is why the real story of the universe is far more interesting than any of the fairy tales we have invented to describe it.

May be you have already reached your target, but if you don’t know this, you will move away from your target!

The struggle for a free intelligence has always been a struggle between the ironic and the literal mind.

I'd kind of expected that kids who knew about the Real World wouldn't act like jock dipwads. Guess I was wrong.

If you were lost for America, there is nobody who could keep the army and the revolution [going] for six months.

In reality, there are very few villains who view themselves as villains. They just have a certain agenda at a certain time.

Can you remember when you didn't want to sleep? Isn't it inconceivable? I guess the definition of adulthood is that you want to sleep.

All we really want is love's confusing joy.

I was influenced by European movies, old Fellini, old Kurosawa - any sort of foreign film.