“He waved at his attendants. "I dragged them like a ball and chain all the way across the palace and back.""If sterner measures are called for, we can find a larger ball and chain." The queen turned and disappeared into the partment."Oh, dear," Eugenides muttered as he followed...The queen's sterner measures, dispensed by the Eddisian Ambassador, arrived before dawn.”

“The last thing the hockey ball symbolized was Time itself, the unstoppability of it, the way we're chained to our bodies, which are chained to Time.”

“Oh be careful! There they go again!" said the old queen as his string broke spilling his balls over the floor.... "Stop them will you, James, you worthless old shit! Don't just stand there and let the master's balls roll into the coal-bin!”

“I remember her telling me once that rabbits were the gnomes in attendance to the Fairy Queen and that the stars were God's daisy chain. Perfect rot, of course.”

“It isn't deep," the Eddisian Ambassador said from the other side of the bed. He was leaning over the wound, looking critical and mildly disappointed. Eugenides didn't miss a beat."It is...too...deep!" he insisted, outraged.”

“If you were Queen of pleasure And I were King of painWe'd hunt down Love together,Pluck out his flying-feather,And teach his feet a measure, And find his mouth a rein;If you were Queen of pleasure And I were King of pain.”