And The Ass Saw The Angel Quotes
"For so long the lid of the valley was clear and blue but now, by God, it roars."
"These sly corbies are birds of death. They’ve shadowed me all mah life."
"Ah think ah could almost remember how to sleep on this soft, warm circle of mud, for mah rhythms differ. They do."
"Ah was also the loneliest baby boy in the history of the whole world."
"Mummy was a swine – a scum-cunted, likkered-up, brain-sick swine."
"In all mah lifehood ah have never once cried. Not out loud. No, not out loud."
"Only the Great One, in all his omnipotence, could have foreseen."
"The rain punished the tabernacle with a roar and a crash."
"And there in the heavy folds of melancholia she would brood, drowned beneath her own little rain."
"Ah emitted a lethal catarrh – black spit, foul and deadly."
"Mule’s chain clinked and ah felt a twinge of shame."
"The streets lay all but empty, the streetlights in permanent use; for the days were dim and pitch-dark were the nights."
"There were some homes that took in Madness as a tenant."
"The grey and bitter swill of the Second Year steeped the valley and its denizens in a bog of glum torpor."
"Tottering a little beneath the great knotted growth that sat grotesquely upon her right shoulder."
"Hunched over, he stared hopelessly at the dogged and beaten face in the puddle between his feet, unable to recognize it."
"Her delicate little hands were worn raw, flayed by the coarse fibre of the rope."
"The wind does not waltz, then not a flap, knock or whistle."
"Not a soul could ah see in town, for not a one could be found."
"The rain had other advantages besides making misery and desolation the rule."
"Suffering was, in general, a comparative sensation felt most keenly in the face of felicity."
"God, it would seem, was blind to their acts of contrition."
"Ah saw all of Cosey Mo's sexy red unnerwear hanging across the bushes like devilish fruit."
"And thus another year passed. And the rain pissed down."
"Not a single ray of sunlight broke the black and brawling firmament."
"Death, the king of terrors – yes, pale, pale Death had grown two flesh-and-blood, skin-and-bone hands."
"Sorrow was his name. He would answer to no other."
"Something premonitious, maybe, or something outside of mahself telling me."
"Ah love you, little brother! And ah’m coming home!"
"Fitzgerald, the young man seemed to have aged somewhat, mellowed out."
"The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance."
"Ah watched mah runway systematically destroyed."
"Fearful things, for they were pinned, those pupils."
"Was Beth delivered to the Ukulites merely as a sign of the end of their castigation? Or was there a greater purpose behind Beth’s presence in the valley?"
"As Beth’s well-being was the most important factor in the Ukulites’ lives, and as the tending of the little girl was women’s work, Sardus watched his child drift further and further from his sphere of influence."
"It was not long before the crones decided that Beth herself should attend one or two of their meetings, for there were things she should know, things she should learn."
"Mrs Eldridge said, ‘You’re to take a look at Beth. See if she is still intact. She is. There can be no mistake there. Then we want a full medical testimony, signed by yourself, certifying explicitly that Beth was in full possession of her virginity at the time of your examination.’"
"O Lord, how excellent is Thy name. Give ear to my supplication when I cry unto Thee, when I lift up mine hands to Thy holy temple. With my whole heart I have sought Thee."
"My soul doth magnify the Lord. I am Beth. The affirmation of your mercy. Only Chastity and Purity have known me. Regard me in the humble estate of handmaiden to the Lord."
"May the Holy Ghost come upon me and the Highest overshadow me, that I may bear blessed fruit from which all generations shall spring. Lord, I await the exacting of Thy Word as revealed to the most blessed prophet Jonas Ukulore."
"This is the day which the Lord hath made! Thy righteousness endureth for ever. Thy horn shall be exalted with honour. With long life I will satisfy Thee and shew Thee my salvation."
"At the centre of Doghead was a raw board palace with twelve plank steps leading to a cylindrical, one-man, saw-toothed turret. Pitched on eight poles, the turret sported an octagonal, pyramid-shaped roof."
"The flag was a rag of once fluffy, once grey fur. The sun had seared and hardened the pelt, so that unfurled it was approximately the same shape and size as a man’s opened hand."
"Death is the poultice to the pain of Life-that’s my news to the world."
"God put blinkers on them. He did. He blinded them to my progress."
"And ah stood there before the bog, sweating salt into my wounds and consciously suffering the pricks of mortality, that my death be that much sweeter – and it is! It is!"
"Dark was the night and the township of Ukulore cringed beneath a merciless rain."
"Our lives are a test," replied Wilma Eldridge without mercy.
"He is born, as the prophet predicted, He is born."
"A thunderbolt leapt from the teeming night sky and the craning sisters ruckled and clucked at the tiny infant face that stared up at them with shivering, pale blue eyes."
"But the doctor could not save both lives, nor was there any choice."
"The air was hijacked by pirate violence – every sound amplified and infused with threat."
"And ah knew exactly what to do. Full of God, ah stepped bravely out and gently lay myself down in the very centre of the circle, in the mire’s eye."