“Then I drove over to get my snaked-haired, sharp-tongued, unpredictable, and very perplexing girlfriend, like the besotted sap that I very much was.”

“Desire filters toxins through my system at the sight and I lower again, shoving her against the padded wall to snake my tongue over the elixir of pain.”

“You see, when we met I thought, "There's a brown mouse of a girl with a sharp tongue," and then before I knew what was happening I was in love with you. Oh, I did my best to ignore it, and I thought that if I ignored you too I'd be safely back in my bachelor state in no time—only it didn't work out like that. You were under my skin, in my bones, my very heartbeat. And I'd gone out of my way to make you dislike me so that it would be easier for me to get over you. Only I haven't done that, my darling.”

“This is my knife. It is very sharp and very eager to hurt you.”

“A hand closed over my wrist. I looked over, and there was Lilly, cast in moonlight and blue, hair snaking around her, a siren calling to me: 'come on.”

“Veal is a very young beef and, like a very young girlfriend, it's cute but boring and expensive.”