“Scientists say that the palm tree line, that is the climate suitable to growth of the palm, is moving north, five hundred metres, I think it was, every year...The palm tree line...I call it the coffee line, the strong black coffee line...It's rising like mercury in a thermometer, this palm tree line, this strong coffee line, this scandal line, rising up throughout Italy and already passed Rome...”

“I was surprised to find out there was a direct line from my palm to my, my, hootchie.”

“Here where all the trees grow in rows; the palms stand stiffly by the roadsides, and in the groves the orange trees line in military rows, and endlessly bear fruit. Beautiful, yes; there is always beauty in order, in rows of growing things! But it is the beauty of captivity.”

“Maybe the whole of italy is becoming a sort of Sicily.”

“I hate and detest Sicily in so far as I love it, and in so far as it does not respond to the kind of love I would like to have for it.”

“On the avenue, dark and tree-lined, shop windows began to blink on.”

“The first of the line is tied to a tree and the last is being eaten by the ants .”