I am not by nature the kind of creator who is transgressive in order to be transgressive.

The cat dropped the rat between its two front paws. "There are those," it said with a sigh, in tones as smooth as oiled silk, "who have suggested that the tendency of a cat to play with its prey is a merciful one - after all, it permits the occasional funny little running snack to escape, from time to time. How often does your dinner get to escape?

So," he asked. "How's death?" "Hard," she said. "It just keeps going.

The current total of countries in the world with First Amendments is one. You have guaranteed freedom of speech. Other countries don't have that.

The names are the first things to go, after the breath has gone, and the beating of the heart. We keep our memories longer than our names.

But standing in that hallway, it was all coming back to me. Memories were waiting at the edges of things, beckoning to me.

For a moment he thought she was about to hit him, which would have been bad, or even start crying, which would have been much, much worse.