Elephants walk with the special grace you sometimes see in very fat women. They have presence. They are the biggest and strongest animals walking the earth with skin like oak or redwood, yet there is about them a gentleness, a vulnerability. They are very touching. Partly it's their eyes, long lashed and set into the skin like oases. That, and the pain of seeing them wince when they are struck. Cruelty can sour them, even turn them killer. One sadistic trainer used to beat them and put cigarettes out in their mouths. He did this for a long time and then one day an elephant grabbed him, threw him down, and stood on her head on his chest, crushing him. Proving, ironically enough, that an elephant never forgets. - Jill Freedman, Circus Days