How fragile we are under the sheltering sky. Behind the sheltering sky is a vast dark universe, and we're just so small. - Paul Bowles

"You want us all to be snake-charmers and scorpion-eaters," he raged, at one point in their conversation ...
"Naturally," Eunice replied in her most provoking manner. "It would be far preferable to being a nation of tenth-rate pseudo-civilized rug-sellers."

The odious little dogs that French people seemed to like so much rushed out at him as he rode by, barking furiously.

the sky here's very strange. I often have the sensation when I look at it that it's a solid thing up there, protecting us from what's behind . . . [from] nothing, I suppose. Just darkness. Absolute night.