“How many of them were there?' Her voice wasn't joking around.Eighteen. Hundred.'Four,' Blaylock interjected. 'An honor guard of four.'What did they work you over with? Those bruises on your thighs are severe?'Crowbars. Big, massive-'Blay cut in. 'Clubs. Had to be those ceremonial black clubs.”

“Why not other elements besides fire, air, earth and water? There are four of them, just four, those foster parents of beings! What a pity! Why aren't there forty elements instead, or four hundred, or four thousand? How paltry everything is, how miserly, how wretched! Stingily given, aridly invented, heavily made!Why not other elements besides fire, air, earth and water? There are four of them, just four, those foster parents of beings! What a pity! Why aren't there forty elements instead, or four hundred, or four thousand? How paltry everything is, how miserly, how wretched! Stingily given, aridly invented, heavily made!”

“thats it?" I say. Those were your worst fears? Why do you only have four..." My voice trails off. Only four fears."Oh" I look over my shoulder at him. "thats why they call you-”

“I’m in the Just Under A Decade club. That’s how long it took me to get a four-year degree.”

“And why had Deb's last boyfriend dumped her? I dumped him. Maybe you didn't French-kiss him enough. I promise you that wasn't it. Tell me how many times a day you kissed, and I'll say if it was enough. Four hundred. Not enough.”

“Affect, Imagery, Consciousness, a four-volume work so dense that its readers were evenly divided between those who understood it and thought it was brilliant and those who did not understand it and thought it was brilliant.”