“Unless some sweetness at the bottom lie,Who cares for all the crinkling of the pie?”

“Yaroo!" I shouted, and I didn't give a beetle's bottom who heard me. "Ya-rooo!”

“Was the pie good, luv?" she asked. I'd forgotten the pie until that moment. I took a leaf from Dr. Darby's notebook. "Um," I said.”

“If you need me, I shall be weeping at the bottom of my wardrobe.”

“Do What?' 'Lie,' he said. 'Why do you fabricate these outlandish stories?''Well,' I wanted to say, 'there are those of us who create because all around us, things visible and invisible are crumbling. We are like the stonemasons of Babylon, forever working, as it says in Jeremiah, to shore up the city of walls.'I didn't say that, of course. What I did say was: 'I don't know.”

“Chicken fizz! O Lord, protect all of us who toil in the vineyards of experimental chemistry!”

“I brought to mind the image of the stranger lying there in the first light of dawn: the slight growth of whiskers on his chin, strands of his red hair shifting gently on the faint stirrings of the morning breeze, the pallor, the extended legs, the quivering fingers, that last, sucking breath. And that word, blown into my face ... "Vale."The thrill of it all!Yes," I said, "it was devastating.”