“Ah, crap. I forgot what my hands look like after drawing. You may have little gray marks...everywhere.”

“This is you." She pointed at the stick figure with enormous red curly marks and blue eyes.Did my hair really look like that? I ran a hand over my head, feeling a bit like Little Orphan Annie.”

“Ah crap!" I instantly shooed away darkness and whatnot, so that I was solid, visible me again. "Sorry, Stevie Rae. I forgot I'd gone all Bram Stoker.”

“He turns to the painting. "I fear Mark was right.""Who is Mark?""A silly little boy who runs after George Boleyn. I once heard him say I looked like a murderer."Gregory says, "Did you not know?”

“If you want to see what my Earthsea looks like, you could sail past the Scilly Isles (handy for you Brits); or you could go to a little bay called Trinidad on the far north coast of California on a foggy morning (not so handy for you Brits). But these are both places I saw long after I had mapped and travelled in the Archipelago. It was pleasant to be able to say - ah! yes! that looks just like the West Reach!”

“I suppose it's possible that the Sundance Kid didn't like to make much of his birthdays — they may have struck him as just another reminder that his draw was getting slower by the year—but what if he truly liked a major celebration? What if he looked forward every year to marking the day of his birth with what they used to call in the West 'a real wingding, with pink balloons and a few survivors'?”