The sensation of falling into the past is not unlike that of coming home for the holidays.

For me the process works best with no interruptions, no breaks in the steady application, no letters to be answered, very little social life, no holidays; it is therefore a form of happy imprisonment.

I am opposed to authority, that egg of misery and oppression; I am opposed to it largely for what it does to those who exercise it.

We understood one another better before ever I opened my mouth

For you must know, gentlemen, that when the mariner is dosed, he likes to know that he has been dosed: with fifteen grains or even less of this valuable substance scenting him and the very air about him there can be no doubt of the matter; and such is the nature of the human mind that he experiences a far greater real benefit than the drug itself would provide, were it deprived of its stench.

It is a great while since I felt the grind of bone under my saw,' he added, smiling with anticipation.

I sew his ears on from time to time, sure.