“What is Aunt Margaret made of? Bird bones and tissue paper, spun glass and straw.”

“Then she broke down and cried onto the flowery wrapping paper. Melanie put her arms around the poor, thin body. What is Aunt Margaret made of? Birdbones and tissue paper. spun glass and straw.”

“I had the brief notion that his heart, pressed flat as a flower, crimson and thin as tissue paper, lay in this file. It was a very thin one.”

“Below me, in spreading, concentric circles, like those a fish makes when it rises in still water, spun round the lower tiers; above me arched the black sky pierced by the gas jets of the stars.”

“I drew the curtains to conceal the sight of my father's farewell; my spite was sharp as broken glass.”

“Ironing's nice and simple,' he said. 'I get all tangled up in words when I'm putting together those interminable papers....”

“I should have liked to have had him beside me in a glass coffin, so that I could watch him all the time and he would not have been able to get away from me.”