This excursus into what the Buddha meant by karma may help us see how his middle path strategy could be used to reply to the objection to non-self from rebirth.
Asked where he got his ideas from, Stoppard used to reply, "Harrods".
When smug patronisers asked Joseph Heller why he had never written a novel as good as Catch 22, he used to reply: "Who has?" Helen Fielding has earned the right to say the same.
The former archbishop of York, John Habgood, an Etonian of painful earnestness, used to reply to crank letters with a stock phrase: "Thank you for your communication, which I will read with the attention it deserves".
At that age, "When I gave my seat to old ladies on the bus, they used to reply: 'Aren't you a nice little boy?'" Slowly she found a place for herself as an artist.
But she would also develop lines to use in her off-screen life; for instance, she always used to reply "Ghana" when asked where she was from, because "Streatham" seemed to cause confusion of the "No, where are you really from?" variety.
But all is not what it seems: he has used a rubber stamp that he also uses to reply to all the invitations he says no to – "Regrets …" Regrets – is he seriously sharing his sadness about the loss of Rauschenberg and Twombly, Bacon and Freud, or ironically joking about sentimental interpretations of art?
I've been with the Comedy Store Players now for 20 years and people still ask, 'Is it really improvised?' and, 'You use key words, don't you?' I used to reply, 'No, hand on my heart, I swear on my life,' because it's like being called a liar.
Emoji also feature strongly on Apple Watch, with Cupertino offering a series of customizable, animated emoji that can be used to reply to a missive — meaning Watch users can communicate a specific sentiment without actually having to describe their feelings with words.
