“Remember that one bares their teeth while laughing.”

“But he stays by the window, remembering that life. They had laughed. They had leaned on each other and laughed until the tears had come, while everything else—the cold and where he'd go in it—was outside, for a while anyway.”

“Once upon a time, son, they used to laugh with their hearts and laugh with their eyes; but now they only laugh with their teeth, while their ice-block-cold eyes search behind my shadow. There was a time indeed they used to shake hands with their hearts; but that’s gone, son. Now they shake hands without hearts while their left hands search my empty pockets.”

“Now this court will learnthat I am the greatest in wit and courage.I am he whose writing the blind seeand whose words grant hearing to the deaf.Content with complete verses, I sleep,while others strain for simple rhymes.I laughed at the frauds and their ignoranceuntil, with discerning hand and mouth, I destroy them.If you see the lion bare his teeth,do not assume he is smiling!”

“He bared his teeth in a happy feral grin. My own personal psycho.”

“Mostly they laughed because they laughed, feeding off each other until they could barely stand.”