The black ice of that dark fortress received the sunlight like a mortal wound.

I have been so-many too-many persons; life$$$ unlike syntax$$$ allows one more than three.

After a winter's gestation in its eggshell of ice$$$ the valley had beaked its way out into the open$$$ moist and yellow.

He was the child of a father who was not his father; but also the child of a time which damaged reality so badly that nobody ever managed to put it together again;

He remembered the old Chinese proverb$$$ sometimes ascribed to Confucius: If you sit by the river for long enough$$$ the body of your enemy will float by.

He had picked up languages the way most sailors pick up diseases; languages were his gonorrhoea$$$ his syphilis$$$ his scurvy$$$ his ague$$$ his plague.

For an instant$$$ silence$$$ noisier than a waterfall.

I have been a swallower of lives; and to know me$$$ just the one of me$$$ you'll have to swallow the lot as well.

Let go of your mind and then be mindful. Close your ears and listen!

There is a basket of fresh bread on your head$$$ yet you go door to door asking for crusts.