The Sisters Brothers

attempting to clear my mind of every recognizable thought.

What would the world be, I thought, without money hung around our necks, hung around our very souls?

He opened his eyes to slits. ‘What’s the matter with you? You’re acting differently.’

quiet as the grave.

they were writhing and tensing and shuddering as though they were being slowly immolated, and indeed I suppose that is just what they were being.

could not hear myself thinking, so clamorous was their buzzing.

completely alien and strange, but beautiful for its strangeness.

He did not respond and I thought, The joke is wearing thin. I decided I would not tell it again.

The woman’s oyster-flesh eyes fell on me and I grew instantly colder.