“London darkens the map like England's bowel polyp. There is a whole country up here.”

“If one will just be still, shut up, and listen--lo, behold, the world'll sift through one's ideas for one, esp. in a grimy London railway station.”

“What wouldn't I give now for a never-changing map of the ever-constant ineffable? To possess, as it were, an atlas of clouds.”

“When insolvent, pack minimally, with a valise tough enough to be thrown onto a London pavement from a first- or second-floor window. Insist on hotel rooms no higher.”

“Have you noticed," said John, "how countries call theirs 'sovereign nuclear deterrents,' but call the other countries' ones 'weapons of mass destruction'?”

“A man like me has no business with this substance "beauty," yet here she is, in these soundproofed chambers of my heart.”

“Because a man like me has no business with this substance "beauty," yet here she is, in these soundproofed chambers of my heart.”