“These were the sorts of notions that had been raised in all my classes, and we had chased them round and round like dogs maddened by their tails.”

“My stepmother was no beauty. She was round and squat with a face not unlike a potato that had been scrubbed.”

“The dachshund was evolved to chase badgers down holes, and the corgi to round up cattle. If anyone loses a herd of cattle down a badger hole, then these are just the dogs to get them out.”

“When they arrived at the palace she had a word with Grant, the young footman in charge, who said it was security and that while ma'am had been in the Lords the sniffer dogs had been round and security had confiscated the book. He though it had probably been exploded.'Exploded?' said the Queen. 'But it was Anita Brookner.”

“All round there was a rising tide of beer, widow Désir's barrels had all been broached, beer had rounded all paunches and was overflowing in all directions, from noses, eyes - and elsewhere. People were so blown out and higgledy-piggledy, that everybody's elbows or knees were sticking into his neighbour and everybody thought it great fun to feel his neighbour's elbows. All mouths were grinning from ear to ear in continuous laughter.”

“It started when we were little kids.Free spirits, but alreadytormented by our own handsgiven to us by our parents.We got together and wrote on desksand slept in laundry rooms near snowy mountainsand slipped through whatevercracks we could find,minds altered, we didn't falterin portraving hysterical andtragic characters in a smogfilled universe.we loved the dirty cityand the journeys away from it.We had not yet been or seen our friends, selves,chase tails round and round in downward spirals,leaving trail of irretrievable,vital life juice behind.Still, thebrothersbloodcomradespartnerfamilycuzzwas impenetrableand we lived inside itlaughing with no clothes, andeverything experimental 'tilldeath was upon us.In our face, mortality.”