“As the paramedics lifted her, my grandmother's corpulent arms swung like bat wings with the life squeezed out of them.”

“Sadie heard a flurry of wing snap as yellow, orange, and tiger-striped moths flew into the light. Dean stood haloed by moths that pulsed like slips of paper along his shoulders and arms. He lifted each one on his finger, naming them for her.”

“There walked warlocks in all their bat-winged, cat-eyed glory, and here, as they swung out over the river, she saw the darting flash of multicolored tails under the silvery skin of the water, the shimmer of long, pearl-strewn hair, and heard the high, rippling laughter of the mermaids.”

“It was a good feeling, to beat her wings and find out they were strong enough to lift her and hold her aloft.”

“Devils are depicted with bats' wings and good angels with birds' wings, not because anyone holds that moral deterioration would be likely to turn feathers into membrane, but because most men like birds better than bats.”

“The holiness of love inspired ordinary men and women to act like angels. It lifted them on wings closer to God.”