“She was certainly now obsessing him! Beyond bearing or belief. His whole being was overwhelmed by her... by her mentality, really. For of course the physical resemblance of the lance-corporal was mere subterfuge. Lance-corporals do not resemble young ladies.”

“I'm in battle mode. Shut down. Hard. I'm not Hunter anymore. I'm Lance Corporal Lee, USMC. Semper Fi, bitches.”

“Minds are not bits of clockwork, they are just bits of not-clockwork. As thus represented, minds are not merely ghosts harnessed to machines, they are themselves just spectral machines. . . . Now the dogma of the Ghost in the Machine does just this. It maintains that there exist both bodies and minds; that there occur physical processes and mental processes; that there are mechanical causes of corporeal movements and mental causes of corporeal movements. I shall argue that these and other analogous conjunctions are absurd.”

“That night Lance wants to rub his penis as he thinks of Lexi but he refrains. He doesn’t want Lexi to be a masturbatory fantasy in the tradition of Cindy Crawford, Heather Locklear, Kate Hudson and Whoopi Goldberg. No. Hell no! As a matter of fact, hellll no with marshmallows on top. Lance wants Lexi to be his special lady, everything he needs and more. Lance has a gut feeling, an irritable bowel syndrome sensation, that Lexi is his Soul Mate, the one woman God made especially for him to enjoy. Lance wonders if Lexi is allergic to hyacinths. Roses are so common.”

“Oh, yes, of course,” he said hastily. He gestured for Sophie to come closer. “Lance, this is Sophie. She helped me out when you and the others ran out on me, and she’s been travelling with me ever since. Sophie, this is Lord Lance the Lazy. You’ll never meet a person lazier than him. Watch as he asks you to come forward so he can kiss your hand.”“Don’t be ridiculous, Oliver, I wouldn’t ask her to come forward,” Lance scoffed. And then after a momentary pause, he added to Sophie, “Incidentally, if I do ask you to come forward, would you oblige?”

“Being made merely in the image of God but not otherwise resembling him enough to be mistaken by anybody but a very near sighted person.”