“She laughed now, and the sound of it--clear as a bell, dirty as a rugby match--turned heads all along their row.”

“Somebody cracks a joke, a whole row laughs, one witticism sets off another, and, like matches, they flare up and burn down.”

“When you opened the door a bell tinkled, but just once, high and clear and small in the neat obscurity above the door, as though it were gauged and tempered to make that single clear small sound so as not to wear the bell out nor to require the expenditure of too much silence in restoring it when the door opened upon the recent warm scent of baking; a little dirty child with eyes like a toy bear's and two patent-leather pigtails.”

“Once," he says, "I was flying to California on the Fourth of July."She turns her head, just slightly."It was a clear night, and you could see all the little fireworks displays along the way, these tiny flares going off below, one town after another.”

“It's not tiddlywinks now, is it?..... NZ Rugby Legend ”

“The mortal wants a demon to drag his tongue along her flesh, defiling as a means to comfort?" he asked."You make it sound very dirty.”