'The story ends. It was written for several reasons. Nine of them are secrets. The tenth is that one should never cease considering human love, which remains as grisly and golden as ever, no matter what is tattooed upon the warm tympanic page.'

'And at last, slowly, afraid he would find nothing, Douglas opened one eye.

And everything, absolutely everything, was there.'

'Where is the sea?                    Wherever you sleep.
Walk to the edge where tired waves

snore on the shingle beach, leave
your wallet and phone on a rock, wade
up to your neck. Go under. Be sleep.'

'Finally they call upon me to tell them who I am, "Nothing yet, nothing yet"...'

'A word of warning: 
that morning when I sharpened a pencil and spelt it out in capital letters, 
I meant it.
And another thing, darling: 
as I ran
my gently trembling tongue along the gummed edge
of the envelope, I was smiling.'

'As they age, all things grow rigid and bright.
The streets fall nameless, and the knots untie.'

'In their entwined sleep they exchanged arms and legs

In their dreams their brains took each other hostage.'

  

'When you come back you will not be you. 

And I may not be I.'

'and to walk in now
would be to walk in
on the ocean.'

  'Bar me and hold me and cling to my arm'

'A room is, after all, a place where you hide from the wolves. That's all any room is.'

'Should rumour of a shabby ending reach you, it was half my fault and half the atmosphere'

'I may think of you softly from time to time.
But I'll cut off my hand before I ever reach for you again.'