June, July, all through the warm months she hibernated like a winter animal who did not know spring had come and gone.

She was a triumph over ugliness, so often more beguiling than real beauty, if only because it contains paradox. In this case, as opposed to the scrupulous method of good taste and scientific grooming, the trick had been worked by exaggerating defects; she'd made them ornamental by admitting them boldly.

Leave it to me: I'm always top banana in the shock department.

Mick Jagger is about as sexy as a pissing toad.

One of the most difficult things in writing a novel or anything at all is to choose the point of view from which it's going to be told.

Most people who become suddenly famous overnight will find that they lose practically eighty percent of their friends. Your old friends just can't stand it for some reason.

But it's Sunday, Mr. Bell. Clocks are slow on Sundays.