It was the first smile of my life. Of course, that is a ridiculous thing to say; I had been smiled at often, the big man had smiled at me not a minute since. And yet I say: it was the first smile, because it was the first that ever went straight into me like a needle too thin to be seen.

Jamrach's Menagerie: A Novel (ed. Vintage, 2011) - ISBN: 9780385534413