It is so often surprising, who rescues you at your lowest moments.

You try, you seem totally nuts, you go underground.

My eyelids are my own private cave, he murmured. That I can go to anytime I want.

We're all getting too smart. Our brains are just getting bigger and bigger, and the world dries up and dies when there's too much thought and not enough heart.

I like birthday cake. It's so symbolic. It's a tempting symbol to load with something more complicated than just 'Happy birthday!' because it's this emblem of childhood and a happy day.

But what I kept wondering about is this: that first second when she felt her skirt burning, what did she think? Before she knew it was candles, did she think she'd done it herself? With the amazing turns of her hips, and the warmth of the music inside her, did she believe, for even one glorious second, that her passion had arrived?

I felt the crumpled paper that had taken the place of my lungs expand as if released from a fist.