"They were nothing more than people, by themselves. Even paired, any pairing, they would have been nothing more than p…"

"Between waking and being awake there is a moment full of doubt and dream, when you struggle to remember what the plac…"

"Hands are sacred things. Touch is personal, fingers of love, feelers of blind eyes, tongues of those who cannot talk.…"

"Why? is the boy's motto, why does, why is, why not? Food, weather, time, fires, sea and season, clothes and cars and …"

"Sometimes, the waves grow hushed, but the sea is always there, touching, caressing, eating the earth.... (chapter 6, …"

"Keri Hulme, tena koe, whanaunga o roto o Ngai-Tahu, o Ngati-Mamoe! You have the nerve to leave the reader with the he…"

"the farmer takes Jill down the well & all the king's horses & all the king's men can't put that baby together again c…"

"death is where jimi hendrix is, where our revolution ended up."

"There has always been something wrong wif the tesses. The tesses paint a picture of me wif no brain. The tesses paint…"

""I'm tired," I says. She says, "I know you are, but you can't stop now Precious, you gotta push." And I do."