“Word inflation . . . Bigger and better. Good greater greatest totally great. Hyperbolic and hyperbolicker. Like grade-inflation.”

“They dragged the air mattress up to the widow's walk and eventually figured out how it was supposed to inflate, but Lucas had to read the instructions in Spanish because the English ones were nearly incomprehensible. Hilariously so. "Insert mouth to the purpose inflation," Helen whispered. ... "Expel lung into inflator tube," Lucas whispered back. "That sounds like it would hurt.”

“If she could no longer be called beautiful, she possessed something better-a knowledge of beauty; it’s inflated value, it’s inevitable loss.”

“My penis, when inflated, does not qualify as a flotation device, no matter how much it tastes like the navy.”

“Inflation is as violent as a mugger, as frightening as an armed robber and as deadly as a hit man.”

“The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.”