“It's Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air.”

“I know a plastic surgeon who put the gun/ in his mouth, fired, and lived./ Thing of the echo. The brain in its great hall/ banqueting, then besieged.”

“Books and ideas are the most effective weapons against intolerance and ignorance.”

“If we stand passively by while the centre of each city becomes a hive of depravation, crime and hopelessness…if we become two people, the suburban affluent and the urban poor, each filled with mistrust and fear for the other…then we shall effectively cripple each generation to come.”

“Ask him about the cemeteries, Dean!”

“That was the biggest fear. I'd rather clean up before I went on the road. It's bad enough cleaning up by yourself, but the idea of putting the whole tour on the line because I could'n make it was too much; even for me”

“There was an air of decay that enveloped the property as if it had been kissed by dead lips glossed with mildew.”