(In referring to simple pleasures) These are arts that those who ridicule should not so readily despise, since they lighten melancholy and foster fri… - Robin Saikia

Every man that has felt pain, knows how few the comforts are that can gladden him to whom health is denied. I fed Hodge valerian to ease his agonies. I bought oysters for his delight, these being soft, and the best meat for his toothless jaws. I went for them myself.

(In referring to Venice) It took a Frenchman and a Russian to give us clearer verbal snapshots of what the city-as-organism really is: Proust, “a chain of marble cliffs…”; Brodsky, “innumerable strands of coral reefs…” I think if one can successfully invite people to make a comparison between the cliffs/reefs, and the organic development of the Gothic city, then one has done a reasonably good job.

(Referring to Hodge the cat) His rumbles of content, and warm black fur, thawed the frost of my soul, and dispelled the torpor of despondency.