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Date: 1992

"Only behind a waterfall of brutal and pleasurable sensations, thought Patrick, accepting the leather-clad menu without bothering to glance up, could he hide from the bloodhounds of his conscience. . There, in the cool recess of the rock, behind that heavy white veil, he would hear them yelping a...

— Edward St. Aubyn (b. 1960)

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Date: 1992

"It was hard enough to rescue himself from the avalanche of his own feelings, without allowing the gloomy St Bernard of his attention to wander into other fields."

— Edward St. Aubyn (b. 1960)

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Date: 1992

"Heroin landed purring at the base of his skull, and wrapped itself darkly around his nervous system, like a black cat curling up on its favourite cushion."

— Edward St. Aubyn (b. 1960)

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Date: 1992

"Patrick sprang up the steps of the Key Club with unaccustomed eagerness, his nerves squirming like a bed of maggots whose protective stone has been flicked aside, exposing them to the assault of the open sky."

— Edward St. Aubyn (b. 1960)

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Date: 1995

"In what way is the mind like a computer that is different from its resemblance, for example, to a telephone switchboard (which was the most popular image in psychology some years ago), or to a cathedral, which once long ago was also a major poetical image (consider: the caverns of the mind, the ...

— Shipley, Thorne (1927-2009)

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Date: 1995

Emily Brontë's soul "goes skimming the deep keel like a storm petrel, / out of sight."

— Carson, Anne (b. 1951)

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Date: 1996

"The general was busy with the ant farm in his head."

— Simic, Charles (b. 1938)

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Date: 1997

"And as soon as he sees him, he knows that this boy will be important to him, important beyond all measure, not because of who he is (he may never see him again) but because of the thoughts that are going on in his head, that burst out of him like a swarm of bees."

— Coetzee, J. M. (b. 1940)

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Date: 1997

"Please could you stop the noise / I'm trying to get some rest / From all the unborn chicken voices in my head."

— Radiohead [Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, Ed O'Brien, Colin Greenwood, and Phil Selway]

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Date: 1999

"A soul was like a worm in an apple, my mother told me."

— Offill, Jenny (b. 1968)

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The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.