The Wine-Dark Sea

You speak English beautifully, which means you can't be English.

It is amazing how full a life a man can lead without for one moment being alive at all, except sometimes when sleeping.

Enchanted islands are hard to understand,' he said. 'I've always thought that. It worried me even as a child. The trouble is that you can never be sure where the enchantment begins and where it ends.

Dreams, [...], are misleading, because they make life seem real. When it loses the support of dreams, life dissolves.

No milk. It is black coffee, pure but strong, that fortifies against the powers of darkness with which the world is filled.

Things mechanical are like the ladies,’ continued Toby. ‘You need to understand their ways. If you understand them, they’ll do what you want from the start. If you don’t, they’ve got you. And then God help you.