Metaphor reveals a writer’s true grasp of life. To the degree that you have no metaphor, you have not yet lived much of a life. - Norman Mailer

. Huge. Cold as a bishop. The hell he would consign you to was cold as ice.

... it all seems more reasonable and possible until you put it figuratively, until the metaphorical end, which is always the muzzle if you come down to it, blasts you in the face.

His consolation in those hours when he was most uncharitable to himself is that taken at his very worst he was at least still worthy of being a character in a novel by Balzac, win one day, lose the next, and do it with boom! and baroque in the style.