You could sketch me, said Emma. She flung herself down onto her seat, leaning her head on her hand.  ‘Draw me like one of your French girls.’ Julian grinned. I hate that movie, he said. You know I do....

What is a secret? It is much more than knowledge shared with only a few, or perhaps only one another. It is power. It is a bond. It is a sign of deep trust, or the darkest threat possible.... Be very...

We cut the throat of a calf and hang it up by the heels to bleed to death so that our veal cutlet may be white; we nail geese to a board and cram them with food because we like the taste of liver dise...

Vishous, could you stop grinning like that? You're beginning to freak me out.

Tighter than a straight man's butt cheeks in prison

There was no closing my eyes and sliding back into that blissful dream of normal. This was my normal now.

The fiction writer is an observer, first, last, and always, but he cannot be an adequate observer unless he is free from uncertainty about what he sees. Those who have no absolute values cannot let th...

So, like, the master needed a hand, if you know what I mean, so I was like, Oh chill, it's a stress thing, everyone does it. I'm flicking the bean under the table right now just to dial the tension ba...

She told the audience that they were going to make a fine old chestnut, Baked Alaska. First you have to have a soft meringue, at just the perfect stage. The camera went in for a close-up of the mering...

Orion nodded, then asked, Dwarf cheese?Cheese made by dwarfs.Oh, said Orion, relieved. They make it. It’s not actually . . .No. What a horrible thought.Exactly.

Magnus rolled onto his back and put his feet up on the arm of the sofa. What do you care if Alec’s miserable?What do I ? Jace said, so loudly that Chairman Meow rolled off the couch and landed on the...

Looking up at the stars and smoking in silence.

Is there a word for forgetting the name of someone when you want to introduce them to someone else at the same time you realize you've forgotten the name of the person you're introducing them to as we...

Investigations revealed that two Venezuelan nationals, Freddy Lugo and Hernán Ricardo Lozano, who had been employed by Luis Posada Carriles, planted the bombs that destroyed a Cuban airliner. The men...

Interviewer: Didn't want to believe?Druyan:

I'd been going to study Pre-Flowering History, Tiercel offered. Now you're living it, Kave said.

I wonder which is worse-the death, not knowing what comes after, or the wedding, when you think you know, but you're wrong.

I know you have not thought about it. Italians always act without thinking, it's the glory and the downfall of your civilisation. A German plans a month in advance what his bowel movements will be at...

I have lived one step away from losing my mind for years. I am quick and accurate in spotting unstable streaks in others.

I attended a symposium, an event named after a fifth century (B.C.) Athenian drinking party in which nonnerds talked about love; alas, there was no drinking, and mercifully, nobody talked about love.