In Rome, Matt had told her, ‘I knew that if I kept up my playing, we would have a baby.’ That was what music represented to him now: a bargain he had sought with fate. In a less anaemic age, he would have sacrificed virgins or immaculate lambs.

He forestalls death with an orange pill bottle, just a few more weeks, fifty pills at a time.

I suddenly remember an old game I used to play when I was nine or ten, and I was allowed to ride my bike until it got dark. I used to make little bets with myself as I watched the sun getting lower and lower on the horizon: If I hold my breath to twenty seconds, the night won't come. If I don't blink. If I stand so still a fly lands on my cheek. Now, I find myself doing the same thing, bargaining to keep Kate, even though that isn't the way it works.

If you're in a weak bargaining position, it can be used against you.

We have to teach the young that no one is out to do them any favours, even NGOs are formed for some motives, either to steal or to promote a particular person's image or that of an organisation etc.

If you must get anything out of anyone, you must come with a bargaining chip.

There will be no bargaining on values.