I prayed that, for once, the predictions of the brassheads would turn — Imraan Coovadia

"“The real question you should be asking is quite different: Why is Section able to function at a time when the larger Agency is paralyzed?” I said, “I don’t like riddles. Why is it?” “Because, for centuries, Section has kept its files on paper, not inside a machine. Muller couldn’t wipe them out…. “We’ve learnt that you cannot control information once it’s in electronic form. You can trust a key; you can trust a lock because it has a defined physical location. It can be made in such a way that it is difficult to duplicate. Numbers, no matter how difficult they are to guess, can be copied perfectly. We use physical objects.”"

"I wondered how he could be so trusting of the universe to lie asleep in the middle of it."

"The power of prime numbers: the key to the new world and the solution to the mysteries of the infinite."

"The Mother Superior came forward and put her hand out to me. She was as tall as me, her stony-green eyes highly dilated. No doubt she was under the influence of one or another compound meant to enhance the quest for divinity and ready the soul to make a reckoning. The religious orders were legendary for their chemical dependencies."

"Controlling the leakage of information is always the key to success in counterintelligence."

"The twentieth century had actors and actresses. They didn’t rely on acting algorithms or fantasize about digital actors. For all its cruelty, I find the old world sympathetic for that reason alone."