His mind worked fast, flying in emergency supplies of common sense, as human minds do, to construct a huge anchor in sanity and prove that what happened hadn't really happened and, if it had happened, hadn't happened much.

“Inside every lump of coal there's a diamond waiting to get out.”

“Omens were all very well, but sometimes it would help if people just wrote thin…”

“I don’t reckon it’s allowed, going round setting fire to people,” said Adam. “O…”

“Pride is all very well, but a sausage is a sausage.”