MAGIC WORDS ments behind me and when I handed it to anyone, I tried to cultivate a manner to correspond." -- Freya Stark, The Valleys of the Assassins (2001) "Again Martins had marked his card with the open-sesame phrase: 'A friend of Harry Lime's.'" -- Graham Greene, The Third Man (1950) • Love, an open heart "[L]ove is the 'Open Sesame' of life." -- Sue Patton Thoele, The Courage to Be Yourself (2001) • Magic charm "[A]n open sesame that will allow us to identify the object of this pilgrimage no matter what form it may assume." -- Umberto Eco, Travels in Hyper- reality (1986) "I was going to get inside of reality and extract its essence, write down on paper the magic metrical words that, read aloud, would do their open sesame." -- Richard Powers, Plowing the Dark (2000) • Magic trick, gimmick -- Ron Willingham, Integrity Selling (1989) • Magic skill "For her they were magic skills, the open sesame to a remote but entirely desirable world." -- Ann Corneliesen, Women of the Shadows (1976) • Magic word -- Peter C. Rollins, Hollywood as Historian (1997) "Rather than knocking on the door, he stood outside of it shouting, 'Open sesame!' And when I opened it, he laughed, 'Magic words! Work ing every time!'" -- Lee Siegel, Net of Magic (1991) "It's the magic word all right, the golden key, the open sesame." -- Keri Hulme, The Bone People (1986) "[H]oping to acquire an abracadabra or open sesame . . ." -- Helen Valentine, Better Than Beauty (2002) "Colin and Susan roamed all over Stormy Point, and beyond, but there were so many rocks and boulders, any of which could have hidden the gates, that they soon tired of shouting 'Abracadabra!' and 'Open sesame!'" -- Alan Garner, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen (1960) "A wave of a magic wand or a command of 'open sesame' would have been more appropriate, she thought, smiling inwardly at her strange fan cies." -- Marianne Willman, The Mermaid's Song (1997) • "Mere sound" -- Peter Kreeft, Making Choices (1990) • Open up -- Catherine Anderson, Annie's Song (1996) "The veil falls away, and our eyes are opened. It is only necessary to say 'Open sesame.'" -- Paul Veyne, Did the Greeks Believe in Their Myths? (1988) • Opening "'In the days when animals could talk,' an even more perfect Open Sesame than 'Once upon a time.'" -- Michel Leiris, Scratches (1948), translated by Lydia Davis (1991)