“They were frightfully angry. Quite apart from the stones no spider has ever liked being called Attercop, and Tomnoddy of course is insulting to anybody.”

“They made for his noise far quicker than he had expected. They were frightfully angry. Quite apart from the stones no spider has ever like being called Attercop, and Tomnoddy of course, is insulting to anybody.”

“Has anybody ever seen a drama critic in the daytime? Of course not. They come out after dark, up to no good.”

“There's a man who's been out sailingIn a decade full of dreamsAnd he takes her to a schoonerAnd he treats her like a queenBearing beads from CaliforniaWith their amber stones and greenHe has called her from the harborHe has kissed her with his freedomHe has heard her off to starboardIn the breaking and the breathingOf the water weedsWhile she was busy being free”

“Their souls were contagious. ... Bloodsuckers, spiders and vampires: that was what Lenin called them.”

“At some point after Asha went to college, the distance between her and Krishnan grew. By the time their daughter left for India, they were too far apart. It was as if they stood on opposite sides of a lake, neither of them having the ability to cross the distance between. The angry words they hurled fell like stones to the bottom of the water, leaving ripples of sadness on the surface.”