“Whelks are strange and comforting.They have no notion of community life and they breed very quietly.But they have a strong sense of personal dignity.Even lying face down in a tray of vinegar there is something noble about a whelk.Which cannot be said for everybody.”

“Ronan kept staring at Whelk. He was good at staring. There was something about his stare that took something from the other person.”

“I have a sense of melancholy isolation, life rapidly vanishing, all the usual things. It's very strange how often strong feelings don't seem to carry any message of action.”

“What do we know,” he had said, “of the world and the universe about us? Our means of receiving impressions are absurdly few, and our notions of surrounding objects infinitely narrow. We see things only as we are constructed to see them, and can gain no idea of their absolute nature. With five feeble senses we pretend to comprehend the boundlessly complex cosmos, yet other beings with a wider, stronger, or different range of senses might not only see very differently the things we see, but might see and study whole worlds of matter, energy, and life which lie close at hand yet can never be detected with the senses we have. I have always believed that such strange, inaccessible worlds exist at our very elbows, and now I believe I have found a way to break down the barriers.”

“I'm having a cheeseburger," Anna said. "With fries smothered in vinegar and salt.""I told you I wouldn't kiss you again. You don't have to poison your mouth.""Very funny. What are you having?""Something with onions and garlic.”

“Sometimes I feel as if there's an explanation to my life that continues to escape me; that I've missed something noble, something sublime; that in some way I have cheated myself...life is so strange, so harsh.”