Quotes from the novel

"We are a group that rarely changes, and when occasionaly a new face appears on the platform it causes a certain disclamatory, protestant ripple, like a new bird in a cage of canaries." 84

"It was something like being inside the cage with a tame tiger." 103

"I had the feeling someone was blowing up a huge balloon and I could see it was going to burst but I couldn't look away." 141

"I couldn't take my eyes away. I had to look. It was like seeing a dangerous little ballet in minature from a great distance, and you know the dancers and the music but not the end of the story, not the choreography, nor what they were going to next, and you were fascinated, and you had to look." 170

"After that it was like the awful moment when you see a child running out into the road and a car is coming and all you can do is shut your eyes tight and wait until the noise tells you it has happenned. The moment of waiting becomes a long lucid period of time with yellow and red spots dancing on a black field, and even if you open your eyes again and find that nobody has been killed or hurt, it makes no difference because so far as you and your stomach are concerned you saw it all." 175