“Erk, Yuk, or Gherkin. When I grew up and left school and left Barringa East for ever, I planned to change my name to something really elegant. It was a waste of time doing it before then.”
“I don’t want to seem boastful, but I got it absolutely perfect the first try: tone, pitch, everything. There was no doubt whatsoever that I was destined for a glittering, brilliant career in the theatre.”
“Mum said it was a lot of creepy nonsense, and who in their right mind would want to leave their bodies and float around like wisps of smoke? There wasn’t anything smoky about mom. She really enjoyed being alive, and getting dressed up to go out.”
″... she didn’t tell the government about that in case she lost her pension. Which meant she was lying to them, even though she was always going mad at me for lying, except in my case I thought of it as decorating statements to make them sound more interesting.”