Her absence had felt like torture--almost a form of personal punishment. He had nobody to discuss his feelings with, and for the first time he realised with appalling clarity what a destructive hold she had over him.

It did no good to cry, she had learned that early on.

When I find the motherfucker who tortured an innocent cat to death just to send us a warning, I'm going to clobber him with a baseball bat

Hey, you fucking creep, in this shithole! I've got a monopoly on that one.

The media have the ability to attract the craziest people to call in perfectly absurd tips. Every newsroom in the world gets updates from UFOlogists, graphologists, scientologists, paranoiacs, and every sort of conspiracy theorist.

He often wondered whether it were possible to be more possessed by
desire for any other woman. The fact was that they functioned well
together, and they had a connection as addictive as heroin.