Mara

“But the most terrible thing was that the shame didn't simply sear my heart, it also mingled into a single whole with the pleasure I was getting from what was going on.

It was something quite unimaginable - truly beyond good and evil. It was then that I finally understood the fatal abysses trodden by De Sade and Sacher-Masoch, who I had always thought absurdly pompous. No, they weren't absurd at all - they simply hadn't been able to find the right words to convey the true nature of their nightmares. And I knew why - there were no such words in any human language.

'Stop,' I whispered through my tears.

But in heart I didn't know what I wanted - for him to stop or to carry on.

I couldn't hold back any longer and I started crying. But they were tears of pleasure, a monstrous, shameful pleasure that was too enthralling to be abandoned voluntarily.”
― Victor Pelevin, The Sacred Book of the Werewolf

“… con sus ahorros le pagó veinte pesos a un cura para que le enseñara a leer y escribir y con los tres que le sobraron se compró un diccionario. Lo revisó desde la A hasta la Z y luego lo lanzó al mar, porque no era su intención estafar a los clientes con palabras envasadas.”
― Isabel Allende, Dos Palabras

“Rachel verzinkt dadelijk in een diep gepeins: spoedig, hoe snel mag dat wel zijn, en wat houdt het woord vervoegen eigenlijk in? Wonderbaarlijk met hoeveel gemak het woordenboek door de liefde op losse schroeven wordt gezet.”
― Charlotte Mutsaers

“Adventuring turned out to be boring. Zach thought back to all the fantasy books he'd read where a team of questers traveled overland, and realized a few things. First he'd pictured himself with a loyal steed that would have done most of the walking, so he hadn't anticipated the blister forming on his left heel or the tiny pebble that seemed to have worked its way under his sock, so that even when he stripped off his sneaker he couldn't find it.

He hadn't thought about how hot the sun would be either. When he put together his bunch of provisions, he never thought about bringing sunblock. Aragorn never wore sunblock. Taran never wore sunblock. Percy never wore sunblock. But despite all that precedent for going without, he was pretty sure his nose would be lobster-red the next time he looked in the mirror.

He was thirsty, too, something that happened a lot in books, but his dry throat bothered him more than it had ever seemed to bother any character.

And, unlike in books where random brigands and monsters jumped out just when things got unbearably dull, there was nothing to fight except for the clouds of gnats, several of which Zach was pretty sure he'd accidentally swallowed.”
― Holly Black, Doll Bones