Take care, take care. This city thrives! It's money gives you wings to soar. But it is a yoke on your shoulders and you would do well to take note of the bruise around your neck.

What are we all chasing? Nella wonders. To live, of course. To be unbound from the invisible ropes that Johannes spoke of in his study. Or to be happy in them, at least.

You are a stone, thrown upon a lake. But the ripples you create will never make you still.

This city is like no other city in the world. It is brilliant but it is bloated, and I've never called it home

The turnip cannot thrive in the tulips patch of soil.

The rules of this house are written in water. I must either sink or swim.

Because, Petronella - it's something in his soul. It's something in his soul and you can't get it out.

All we can do if we're lucky is stich up the mistakes other people make.

Love your children, for they are the seeds that will make this city bloom.

Words are water in this city. One drop of rumour could drown us.

Believe it or don't believe it, Madame. But my feet are tired too. Bloody tired. Like a dead man's.

I took my .38 out and looked to see that there were bullets in all the proper places. I knew there would be, but it did no harm to be careful. And I'd seen Clint Eastwood do it once in the movies.

It used to be said that God could create anything except what would be contrary to the laws of logic. The truth is that we could not say what an "illogical" world would look like.

If it gets laughs, it's funny.

The field was wet, the lane was wet, and the spirits of my mechanic and helper were damp.

Don't hit women. Never, ever, ever.

A lot of American actors when they do Shakespeare put on a phoney English accent and it drives me crazy. You're always fighting against the idea that only the British know how to do Shakespeare.

The inertia of humans is so huge that you can't really do anything meaningful.

By education I am an Englishman, by views an internationalist, by culture a Muslim and a Hindu only by accident of birth.

It is a very trying task for deceitful people, always to have to cover up their lack of sincerity and to repair the breaking of their word.

I was never one to stand on a soap box and say, "This is how you need to live your life!" It was never about that.