“She was like a crinkled poppy; with the desire to drink dry dust.”

“Dancing? You, Poppy?" Marianne shook her head slowly. I never thought..."Rose looked concerned. She even felt Poppy's head for fever, but Poppy shook her off."I don't know about you, Rose, but I'm done letting creatures like Under Stone and the Corley dictate my life. I enjoy dancing, and I will blasted well dance at my wedding!""Poppy! Language!"Poppy didn't answer; she just threw her arms around Christian and kissed him soundly.”

“…she looked like Vivien, the Lady of the Lake, only she was fat and her lake was dust, sand and dust, bones and dust and sand.”

“but the flower continued her beauty preparations in the shelter of her green chamber, selecting her colors with greatest care and dressing quite deliberately,adjusting her petals one by one.She had no desire to emerge all rumpled, like the poppies. She wished to appear only with full radiance of her beauty. Oh yes, she was quite vain!”

“The good die first, and they whose hearts are dry as summer dust, burn to the socket.”

“We now have a strong desire for living combined with a strange carelessness about dying. We desire life like water and yet are ready to drink death like wine.”