"Hoping is what people do when they're too lazy to do anything else." — Tim Winton

Why was it that he didn't know a thing about the underlying nature of people, the shadows and shifts, the hungers and hopes that caused them to do the things they did?

"It does you good to be tenants. It reminds you of your own true position in the world."

"Ambition, Rose. It squeezes us into corners and turns out ugly shapes."