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21 " I knew I’d do anything for money. Throughout college back in Ireland, I’d kept a savings account that I charmingly termed “abortion fund.” It had €1,500 in it by the end. I knew some women who saved with their friends, and they all helped whoever was unlucky. But I didn’t trust anyone. I got the money together by waitressing, then kept adding to it after I had enough for a procedure in England. I liked watching the balance go up. The richer I got, the harder it would be for anyone to force me to do anything. "
― , Exciting Times
22 " During these outings I felt I had hitherto woefully misdirected my energies in attempting to cultivate a personality. If you didn’t have one then that left more room for everyone else’s. "
23 " At work I imagined nice things that might happen to me if I were a different person. "
24 " The day before a cinema trip, I spent 400 Hong Kong dollars on a Jo Malone candle because I could imagine lighting it with her in the flat. For her, I'd burn a candle worth four hours' pay to me, i.e. one-sixth of a day, thinking: the other five-sixths are there, too, if you want them. It would glow purple against her face and her cheekbones would ridge like sand ripples. "
25 " The only thing we had in common was DNA, which gave us limited mileage conversationally. "
26 " Most English people said ‘what’ as ‘wot’, though authors only spelled it ‘wot’ when the characters were poor. "
27 " Some mornings I didn’t leave the bed because then I’d have to brush my teeth, followed by a series of actions that amounted to living my life as the person I was. I was unable to drum up positivity about either dental hygiene or the rest of my day, so I told myself I was disgusting and lazy and I’d be late and they’d fire me, and then I got up. If you were really sick you couldn’t just harness your self-loathing like that, so I knew I was fine. "
28 " It was like drinking something I'd been holding till it cooled, finding it still too hot, and gulping anyway because I'd been cold too long. "
29 " Camera eats first "
30 " She’d once asked me how I made decisions. I said: poorly, what about you. She said she did pros–cons lists. “Usually weighted ones,” she’d said, “because some pros will be more pro than other pros and some cons will be more con. And you need a column for implications.” “Implications?” “Potentially important knock-on effects. Not a proper pro or con because you don’t know for sure that it will happen—but likely enough to be worth considering. I favor the PMI table.” “What?” “Pluses, minuses, implications. "