“A frightful exchange of metaphors took place between the maskers and the crowd.”

“A bridge is a meeting place . . . a possibility, a metaphor.”

“Metaphors failed him, then. He had gone beyond the world of metaphor and simile into the place of things that are, and it was changing him.”

“The choice we face is not, as many imagine, between heaven and hell. Rather, the choice is between heaven and this world. Even a fool would exchange hell for heaven; but only the wise will exchange this world for heaven.”

“The most important reason for going from one place to another is to see what's in between, and they took great pleasure in doing just that.”

“But nothing is said of the closeness between two people: how they grew in the shade of each other's presence. No one speaks of that exchange of gift and character --- the way a person took on and recognized in himself the smile of a lover. Individuals are seen only in the context of these swirling social tides.”