The zoo grounds reeked of desolation, but the silence had an undercurrent, a silvery vibe, like the hush of a concert hall just before the first note.

They say that when people still rode on vehicles powered by oil, they could go anywhere they wanted.

It helps if you don’t think of them as human. More than one officer has called this job pest control.

Nothing exists except through human consciousness.

I could be listening to Painted Red weave the stories of the saints in her rich roomy voice, and beginning to see how all those stories were in some way one story: a simple story about being alive, and being a man; a story that, simple as it was, couldn't itself be told.

Who did the council fight?'It split in two and fought itself.'That's suicide!'No, ordinary behaviour. The efficient half eats the less efficient half and grows stronger. War is just a violent way of doing what half the people do calmly in peacetime: using the other half for food, heat, machinery and sexual pleasure. Man is the pie that bakes and eats himself, and the recipe is separation.'I refuse to believe men kill each other just to make their enemies rich.'How can men recognize their real enemies when their family, schools and work teach them to struggle with each other and to believe law and decency come from the teachers?'My son won't be taught that,' said Lanark firmly.'You have a son?'Not yet.

I'm already under the covers when he comes in. I watch as he takes off his shirt and jeans, and climbs into bed beside me. On any other occasion, the sight and feel of his near naked body would send my blood pressure into orbit, but I'm so exhausted by the events of today that I'm incapable of feeling anything even close to desire. And he doesn't ask anything of me.

Out here we speak Malspeak, a mangle of English and old languages like Spanish, Mandarin, and Russian. Dialects from a time when the land was defined by many borders. Now there’s only one that matters. And I am on the wrong side of it.

I'm a wanted fugitive, and you're an upstanding bachelor of the year!

Life involves a lot of unknowns.