- Foreign Secretary: We need help with the french; to go to Paris to haggle over farm prices.
- Clara Paige: I thought Sir Michael was in charge?
- Foreign Secretary: No. Sir Michael has broken his neck, out riding.
- Clara Paige: I hope he's alright.
- Foreign Secretary: Oh yes, fine, but not up to haggling. Particularly with the french, which involves a great deal of shaking your head.
- Clara Paige: Other people's lives always seem so attractive, we all feel that. Anyone's life but our own.
- Clara Paige: [to Gerald] I hate you. You don't believe it. When I say it you think it's because of something you've done, the latest incident, whatever it is. You think when the incident is over: ah well, the hatred will be over. But it wont. It's you that I hate. What you are. What you represent. Drink and cowardice in equal parts. The whole dreary mixture disgusts me.