“Ann put the oven to heat. She washed the lamb under the tap, turning it around to clean the entire leg. Then it was dried with a paper towel, stretched out on the cutting board to be hammered flat,...”

“Youre telling stories again. You have the disease of telling stories, Roland.”

“We get most of our energy from complications.”

“I believe, Sebastian, that novels are more important than ever. They are more important than video recorders and record players and television because they enable us to exercise our minds. They all...”

“It was only in a place like Paris where knowing the books someone loved, whether they followed Lvi-Strauss or Sartre, was the yardstick by which to measure them.”

“You’re telling stories again. You have the disease of telling stories, Roland.”

“We never see other people anyway, only the monsters we make of them.”

“But these weren't the kind of monsters that had tentacles and rotting skin, the kind a seven-year-old might be able to wrap his mind around--they were monsters with human faces, in crisp uniforms, ...”

“You guys know about vampires? You know, vampires have no reflections in a mirror? Theres this idea that monsters dont have reflections in a mirror. And what Ive always thought isnt that monsters d...”