Playing Nice

“Like parents who split up in the aftermath of a child’s death, because the grief would only be survivable with someone who didn’t feel the same pain as you, whose agony didn’t reflect yours every time you looked into their eyes.”

“But there’s mounting evidence that many successful CEOs and politicians are actually psychopaths, too; or at least, fall somewhere on the psychopathic spectrum—that is, they score low on tests for remorse, conscience, and moral judgment, and high for fearlessness, quick thinking, and cold-bloodedness. And there are certain psychopathic traits that we know Miles has. Something called shallow affect, for example—having a very limited range of emotions. Getting bored easily. Impulsiveness. Charm. Not really caring about other people’s feelings, except as a tool to manipulate them by. Having very few long-term friends. Seeing life as a contest where, for you to win, others have to lose. And treating your children as trophies, flattering extensions of yourself.”

“Those like Pete, whose hearts are pure – the fundamentally decent, honest, loyal ones, the ones Miles would dismissively sneer at as the meek – they’re living, somehow, in a bigger, richer way.”

“the expensive private hospital offloading me on to the NHS as casually as if it were scraping a piece of dog shit off its shoe.”

“People said it took a village to raise a child, but I didn’t even have a cul-de-sac.”

“her to break her leg. Initially she was unable to provide the police”

“At the end of the day, I decide, you have to let suspicion go, to trust those you love.”

“Love your job, but don't expect it to love you back.”

“saturnine, without really knowing why. He was almost six foot, chunky and broad-shouldered.”

“With his redundancy payment dwindling fast, I couldn’t afford to take the unpaid part of my maternity leave, so I went back to work after thirty-nine weeks.”

“score low on tests for remorse, conscience and moral judgement, and high for fearlessness, quick thinking and cold-bloodedness”