Of course (said Oryx), having a money value was no substitute for love. Every child should have love, every person should have it. . . . but love was undependable, it came and then it went, so it was good to have a money value, because then at least those who wanted to make a profit from you would make sure you were fed enough and not damaged too much. Also there were many who had neither love nor a money value, and having one of these things was better than having nothing.

You can’t buy it, but it has a price,” said Oryx. “Everything has a price.

Screw poetry, it’s you I want, your taste, rain on you, mouth on your skin.

He’d developed a strangely tender feeling towards such words, as if they were children abandoned in the woods and it was his duty to rescue them.

They seemed to be able to choose. We seemed to be able to choose, then. We were a society dying of too much choice.

The animals have no need for speech, why talk when you are a word.

I have a big following among the biogeeks of this world. Nobody ever puts them in books.