“A phenomenon must be to some extent comprehensible to be perceived at all.”

“And there are my cats, engaged in a ritual that goes back thousands of years, tranquilly licking themselves after the meal. Practical animals, they prefer to have others provide the food ... some of them do. There must have been a split between the cats who accepted domestication and those who did not.”

“The name's Clem Williamson Snide. I am a private asshole.”

“Like Spain, I am bound to the past.”

“So he is putting down junk and coming on with tea. I take three drags, Jane looked at him and her flesh crystallized. I leaped up screaming "I got the fear!" and ran out of the house. Drank a beer in a little restaurant - mosaic bar and soccer scores and bullfight posters - and waited for the bus to town.A year later in Tangier I heard she was dead.”

“In the U.S. you have to be a deviant or die of boredom.”

“Everything Jack says is to be taken with considerable reserve.”