Baths, she thought, were just like her relationships, all "ooh, ah" in the beginning and then suddenly, without warning, she had to get out, out, out!

One of the multitudes of exboyfriends had been a country music fan and left Gemma with an unfortunate passion for Tammy Wynette. It was like, Cat thought, he’d given her herpes.

If you feel far from God, guess who moved?

Feel completely unable to do anything. Try to picture your life in five years. It really seems like you will be dead.

Once you've found some joy, you never want to be without it.

Keep a watch also on the faults of the patients, which often make them lie about the taking of things prescribed.

What does it mean, being a woman?

We now have a national reputation for corruption.

Discipline without freedom is tyranny; freedom without discipline is chaos.

I doubt that the evil spirits of the past, under which we in Europe have already suffered more than enough this century, have been banished for ever.

Some subjects are so serious that one can only joke about them.

I'm not really good at fun-to-know, human interest stuff. We're not 'celebrities', whose life itself is a performance. Good or bad or ugly, we are our words. They're what people meet.