And truly, even Plato, whosoever well considereth shall find that in the body of his work, though the inside and strength were philosophy, the skin as it were and beauty depended most on poetry.

-Sidney, Sir Philip
  The Defence of Poetry.

For he counteracts the powers of darkness by his electrical skin and glaring eyes. For he counteracts the Devil, who is death, by brisking about the life. For in his morning orisons he loves the sun and the sun loves him. For he is of the tribe of Tiger.

-Smart, Christopher
^63  Of his cat Jeoffry. JubilateAgno, fragment B, l.719^22. (First published1939.)

But the skin of progress Masks, unknown, the spotted wolf of sameness.

-Soyinka,Wole pseudonym of Akinwande Oluwole Soyinka
  The Lion and theJewel (published1962),'Night'.

The skin and shell of things Though fair are not Thy wish nor prayer but got My meer despair of wings.

-Vaughan, Henry
  Silex Scintillans,'The Search'.

I have been told, both in approval and accusation, that I seemto loveall mycharacters.What Idoinwriting of any character istotry toenter intothemind, heart and skinof a human being who is not myself.Whether this happens to be a man ora woman, old or young, with skin blackor white, the primary challenge lies in making the jump itself. It is the act of a writer's imagination that I set most high.

-Welty, Eudora
The Collected Stories of EudoraWelty, preface.

A man who publishes his letters becomes a nudistönothing shields him from the world's gaze except his bare skin.

-White, E(lwyn) B(rooks)
  Letter to Corona Macheiner,11 Jun.