Foul and magical fumes bubbled out of the kettle, like the flatulence of a dragon on a demon-only diet.

You're trying to be tricky. What's morality?" "It's the difference between what's right and what you can rationalize." "Must be a human thing." "Exactly.

She was an alien, really - a sort of eating, pooping, tantrum machine - and he didn't understand anything about her species.

The medium obscured the message.

I like a girl with a substantial bottom,' said Renoir, drawing in the air the size bottom he preferred.

Children see magic because they look for it.

Winter near the shore is cold. The wind kicks up a salty mist and elephant seals come to shore to trumpet and rut and birth their pups. Retired people put sweaters on their lap dogs and drag them down the street on retractable leashes in a nightly parade of doggy humiliation. Surfers don their wetsuits against the chill of storm waves and white sharks adjust their diets to include shrink-wrapped dude-snacks on fiberglass crackers.