"Persse flushed and stiffened with a chivalrous urge to protect the girl from insult. Professor Swallow, leaning forward to scrutinize her lapel badge, did indeed seem to be peering rudely down her dycolletage.

"'Fine pair of knockers there, wouldn't you say?' Dempsey remarked.

"Persse turned on him fiercely. 'Knockers? Knockers? Why in the name of God call them that?'

"Dempsey backed away slightly. 'Steady on. What would you call them, then?'

"'I would call them ... I would call them ... twin domes of her body's temple,' said Persse.

"'Christ, you really are a poet, aren't you?"' Part 1, Chapter 1, pg. 10

"But if the literary text says, 'The door was open,' I can only speculate about the significance of that door - opened by what agency, leading to what discovery, mystery, goal? The tennis analogy will not do for the activity of reading - it...