“His heart, like mine, was ticking off the time allotted to his small restless body.”

“Holding this soft, small living creature in my lap this way, though, and seeing how it slept with complete trust in me, I felt a warm rush in my chest. I put my hand on the cat's chest and felt his heart beating. The pulse was faint and fast, but his heart, like mine, was ticking off the time allotted to his small body with all the restless earnestness of my own.”

“Every clock is a bomb, ticking away at the minutes of our lives, counting off the seconds one by one before we die.At birth a heart it given a certain number of beats. The clock is counting them off one by one and will not allow a man any more than his allotted share.”

“Billy moved restlessly. "Seems like-seems like- towards night as if a body got kind o' lonesome for a woman person-like her." Billy indicated Margaret and then closed his eyes so tight his small face wrinkled.”

“All emotions, even those that are suppressed and unexpressed, have physical effects. Unexpressed emotions tend to stay in the body like small ticking time bombs—they are illnesses in incubation.”

“Joe closed his hand over the watch and it was still warm from his father's pocket, ticking against his palm like a heart.”