“It had a very long pendulum, and the pendulum swung with a slow tick-tock that set his teeth on edge, because it was the the kind of delibrate, annoying ticking that wanted to make it abundantly clear that every tick and every tock was stripping another second off your life.”

“There are 86,400 seconds in a day. And in any ONE of them you can decide to CHANGE your life. Tick tock tick tock.”

“Don't wish, Miss Tick had said. Do things.”

“We all, at some point or another, dance to somebody's tune. It seems to me that your time has come. Tick-tock, love. Tick-tock.”

“The duke had a mind that ticked like a clock and, like a clock, it regularly went cuckoo.”

“Tick, tock,” whispers Wiress. I guide her in front of me and get her to lie down, stroking her arm to soothe her. She drifts off, stirring restlessly, occasionally sighing out her phrase. “Tick, tock.” “Tick, tock,” I agree softly. “It’s time for bed. Tick, tock. Go to sleep.”

“Tick, tock.”