Nerissa

“We put the kettle on to boil, up in the nose of the boat, and went down to the stern and pretended to take no notice of it, but set to work to get the other things out. That is the only way to get a kettle to boil up the river.  If it sees that you are waiting for it and are anxious, it will never even sing.  You have to go away and begin your meal, as if you were not going to have any tea at all.  You must not even look round at it.  Then you will soon hear it sputtering away, mad to be made into tea. It is a good plan, too, if you are in a great hurry, to talk very loudly to each other about how you don’t need any tea, and are not going to have any.  You get near the kettle, so that it can overhear you, and then you shout out, “I don’t want any tea; do you, George?” to which George shouts back, “Oh, no, I don’t like tea; we’ll have lemonade instead—tea’s so indigestible.”  Upon which the kettle boils over, and puts the stove out.”
― Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat

“No,” said the doctor. “It’s something I’ve never seen before. Something I don’t think anyone has seen before.”  ”
― Steven Decker, Child of Another Kind

“Lots of things went into creating a monster, but nothing had prepared her for actually being caught by one.”
― William Kely McClung, Black Fire

“Coffin,why no lid? Too antiseptic for Hell, and could the roof of heaven really be made of gray metal?”
― Andrew Davidson, The Gargoyle