I was not wounded in any part of my body, but I had never experienced such intense pain, such a ripping of the nerves, such an ache of the heart.

You bring joy and pain in equal measure. Joy because you are with me, but pain because it wont be for long.

As for hearing, the sloth is not so much deaf as uninterested in sound.

Jesus, Mary, Muhammad and Vishnu, how good to see you Richard Parker!

What works in a story is very different than what works in cinema. For example, dialogue in books: If you translate it too faithfully, it sounds a little stilted, because we often don't speak the way we speak in novels. Oral language is much punchier, shorter sentences.

How does one say in the jargon of musicology that my sould was pulled out of me and thrown up in the air, to be tossed about by the music. How does one say that I breathed, that I existed, in harmony with the ups and downs of those notes. What kind of notes both elevate and cast down, exalt and crush?

It is pointless to say that this or that night was the worst of my life. I have so many bad nights to choose from that I've made none the champion.