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)

Date: 2000

"Reactions react to reactions like worms impaling themselves more deeply on the hooks they try to escape."

— Edward St. Aubyn (b. 1960)

Date: 2000

"As I breathed in I could feel my consciousness expanding along a glistening spider's web of total connectedness and as I exhaled it accordioned back into the tropical richness of my body, the streams and rivers of my blood."

— Edward St. Aubyn (b. 1960)

Date: 2005

"It was as though my memories were pigeons and the accident a big noise that had scared them off."

— McCarthy, Tom (b. 1969)

Date: 2009

"His mind snagged on the word like a fish on a hook."

— Nicholls, David (b. 1966)