I didn't seem to have that effect on anyone but it would have been a waste for both of us to be saints.

I frightened myself. I became the ghost Piper was so scared of.

Staying alive was what we did to pass the time.

Osbert was the only one who didn't seem suspicious. He was so interested in the Decline of Western Civilization that he missed the version of it taking place under his nose.

The real truth is that the war didn't have much to do with it except that it provided a perfect limbo in which two people who were too young and too related could start kissing without anything or anyone making us stop.

A piano might fall on your head, he said, but it also might not. And in the meantime you never know. Something nice might happen.

It might go down better than appearing as a giant reptile encased in a ball of fire and forcing yourself on her.' 'WHY DO YOU ALWAYS HAVE TO BRING THAT UP?