“Without thought he repeated some words which a boy had once chalked on the blackboard between lessons: ‘A lump of coal is better than nothing. Nothing is better than God. Therefore a lump of coal is better than God’. And then he traced his own name with his finger on the cracked and broken floor.”

“Without thought he repeated some words which a boy had once chalked on the blackboard between lessons: ‘A lump of coal is better than nothing. Nothing is better than God. Therefore a lump of coal is better than God’. And then he traced his own name with his finger on the cracked and broken floor.”

— Peter Ackroyd