“LIII.What is the holiness of conversation? It isto master death.”

“The man has a theory. The woman has hipbones. Here comes Death.”

“we disappear.It happens to me frequently. You disappear? Yes and then come back.Moments of death I call them.”

“DEATH. . .And now you are here to fight for this woman.You know her promise is given.She has to die or her husband won't go free.APOLLORelax, I'm not breaking any laws.DEATHWhy the bow, if you're breaking no laws?APOLLOI always carry a bow, it's my trademark.”

“Prowling the meanings of a word, prowling the history of a person, no use expecting a flood of light. Human words have no main switch. But all those little kidnaps in the dark. And then the luminous, big, shivering, discandied, unrepentant, barking web of them that hangs in your mind when you turn back to the page you were trying to translate...”

“Outside, the natural world was enjoying a moment of total strength.”

“God's pity! How long will it feel like burning?”