Nicholas Temelcoff is famous on the bridge, a daredevil. He is given all the difficult jobs and he takes them. He descends into the air with no fear. He is a solitary. He assembles ropes, brushes the tackle and pulley at his waist, and falls off the bridge like a diver over the edge of a boat.

You want to suggest something new, but at the same time, resolve the drama of the action in the novel.

He came to this country like a torch on fire and he swallowed air as he walked forward and he gave out light

In the desert the most loved waters, like a lover's name, are carried blue in your hands, enter your throat. One swallows absence.

He turns his back to the far shore and rows toward it. He can in this way travel away from, yet still see, his house....he feels he is riding a floating skeleton...Some birds in the almost-dark are flying as close to their reflections as possible.

You built your walls too, she tells him. So I have my wall. She says it glittering in a beauty he cannot stand. She with her beautiful clothes with her pale face that laughs at everyone who smiles at her.

The one of the great sadnesses of any life is knowing what you know now and then remembering what you did not know then.