“The way people used to kiss before the age of historical materialism.”

“Most of the basic material a writer works with is acquired before the age of fifteen.”

“...he whispered "I've been dying to do that for ages," before leaning in and gently kissing me again...”

“Say on, sayers! sing on, singers! Delve! mould! pile the words of the earth! Work on, age after age, nothing is to be lost, It may have to wait long, but it will certainly come in use, When the materials are all prepared and ready, the architects shall appear.”

“In an age in which economists take for granted that people equate well-being with consumption, increasing numbers of people seem willing to trade certain freedoms and material comforts for a sense of immutable order and the rapture of faith.”

“From that historically brief quite opaque moment, came the chaos of our material history, an anarchy of chronology, of mismatched remnants that delighted and horrified investigators.”