“It’s all life is. Just going ’round kissing people.”

“Dain kept his gaze on his plate and concentrated on swallowing the morsel he’d just very nearly choked on. She was possessive… about him.The beautiful, mad creature – or blind and deaf creature, or whatever she was – coolly announced it as one might say, “Pass the salt cellar,” without the smallest awareness that the earth had just tilted on its axis.”

“Selling eternal life is an unbeatable business, with no customers ever asking for their money back after the goods are not delivered.”

“Look at the stupid, poor people. Look at the stupid, poor, burned-out people. Look at the stupid, poor, burned-out people, look at their dead baby. It’s death porn for the masses. ”

“Will you walk into my parlour?” said the Spider to the Fly”

“The problem I have with all this religion stuff is that I can’t relate to it. I think most people got into ‘cos it gave them something to do on a Sunday, but since all the shops are now open it isn’t required as much.”

“Do you write novels?” I said.”Novels, Lord no,” she said. “I can’t even stay married.”

“Where would David Copperfield be if Dickens had gone to writing classes? Probably about seventy minor characters short, is where. (Did you know that Dickens is estimated to have invented thirteen thousand characters? Thirteen thousand! The population of a small town!)”

“I’ve just vowed my love for you. Have you nothing to say in return?” Duncan asked.”Thank you, husband.”

“…there was practically one handwriting common to the whole school when it came to writing lines. It resembled the movements of a fly that had fallen into an ink-pot, and subsequently taken a little brisk exercise on a sheet of foolscap by way of restoring the circulation.”

“What would people think?’Jesus said that people think all sorts of things. The human mind is like a cloud of gnats. Constant motion. That’s why you have to look at the heart.’Oh,’ said Grandpa.”

“My mate is really, really weird.She is also absolutely covered in brown, mushy clay.She laughs and holds a large lump up to show it to me. Her mouth moves, and she makes enough noise to scare away a group of birds near the shore.She is so, so strange.”

“Home was his favorite place too. But home for him was anywhere Jane happened to be. Never in his life had he loved someone as much as he loved her. So much that it scared him sometimes. He pulled her against him and looked out over the city. He was in love with his wife. Yeah, he knew what that said about him. That he was a goner. Leg-shackled for life. Whipped by a short woman with a big attitude. Yep, that’s what it said about him, and he didn’t care.”

“Lori sat way back in her chair and gave him the once-over. “What in the world’s gotten into Ben Lawson? jokes? Flirting? Maybe I should sleep with Molly. I think she’s got a magic hooha.”

“You are well aware of your effect on women, and I’m sure it gratifies you no end to watch them sigh and salivate over your magnificent physique. I do not wish to spoil your fun, Dain, but I do ask you to consider my pride and refrain from embarrassing me in public.”Women…sighing and salivating…over his magnificent physique. Maybe the brutal bedding had destroyed a part of her brain.”