Like Bancroft, MacIntyre had been a man of power, and like all men of power, when he talked of prices worth paying, you could be sure of one thing. Someone else was paying.

It has been a messy week, and I blame myself as much as anyone else. I feel like a behaviourist who has designed her rat’s maze poorly.

In the Envoy Corps, you take what is offered, Virginia Vidaura said, somewhere in the corridors of my memory. And that must sometimes be enough.

When you treat your failures as lessons, you can never fail.

The turnip cannot thrive in the tulips patch of soil.

Life is all we have, the grace of service to mankind.

She smiles, and her eyes look as if they can see back into her memory, into all the things that have gone into making a person what they are.

One can fool life for a long time, but in the end it always makes us what we were intended to be.

How could such a destructive man [referring to Bush] be so popular with the American people?... Not only is he poisoning our air and water - he's poisoning our political system as well.

Write the best story that you can and write it as straight as you can.

I guess, as an Emanuel, I have a voice that carries.

I take no leave of you, Miss Bennet: I send no compliments to your mother. You deserve no such attention. I am most seriously displeased.

If we wait for the U.S. to do something, we will be waiting for a very long time. It's Europe, it's Australia, it's the other developed and middle developing countries that have got to do the job.