She was a beefy young woman and, whatever piece of music she was playing, it was definitely losing.

Rumour is information distilled so finely that it can filter through anything. It does not need doors and windows -- sometimes it does not need people. It can exist free and wild, running from ear to ear without ever touching lips.

Just because someone's a member of an ethnic minority doesn't mean they're not a nasty small-minded little jerk [...]

...William wondered why he always disliked people who said 'no offense meant.' Maybe it was because they found it easier to to say 'no offense meant' than actually to refrain from giving offense.

Or -- and this she knew was a far more accurate way of looking at it -- the book was true and reality was lying.

He's out of his depth on a wet pavement.

Apes had it worked out. No ape would philosophize, "The mountain is, and is not." They would think, "The banana is. I will eat the banana. There is no banana. I want another banana.