John Lanchester

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The person doing the worrying experiences it as a form of love; the person being worried about experiences it as a form of control

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But knowing that you had gone wrong, and knowing how you had gone wrong, were not the same thing as knowing how to put it right

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He had a simple maxim for all competitive or adversarial situations: work out what the other party least wants you to do, and then do it. Relieving your feelings was fun, but the best course of action was to make things as difficult as possible for the person trying to make things difficult for you

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London was so rich, and also so green, and somehow so detailed: full of stuff that had been made, and bought, and placed, and groomed, and shaped, and washed clean, and put on display as if the whole city was for sale

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You heard people say forty was the new thirty and fifty was the new forty and sixty was the new forty-five, but you never heard anybody say eighty was the new anything. Eighty was just eighty