" the worst thing about him, she tentatively concluded, was his genius for thinking himself slighted, belittled, under attack. it became almost impossible to mention anything to him, no matter how reasonable, no matter how gently put. ‘go, go eat air,’ he’d shout, and retire into the tent of his wounded pride.—and the most seductive thing about him was the way he knew instinctively what she wanted, how when he chose he could become the agent of her secret heart.

— salman rushdie, the satanic verses