Dana

“This sounds like exactly what she wants, what she has secretly always wanted. To read books when she wanted to read books. To be sad when she was sad. To be scared when she was scared. To be angry when she was angry. To be boring when she felt boring.”
― Alison Espach, The Wedding People

“She takes the box of matches and the pack of Bastos out of his inner pocket, pulls out two cigarettes, presses them between her lips, and lights them both, taking a deep drag with the ease of long habit, he sees the orange glow bright for a moment in the red half-light, and then, as if she’s done it hundreds of times before, she places the other cigarette between his lips, it’s still damp from her mouth like a gentle kiss. And he grows calm, he smoked with a comrade this way so often, keeping watch together at night, killing time by day, during shelling, sitting quietly as all around them the world was undone.”
― Anjet Daanje, The Remembered Soldier

“I see!" said Ana, nodding. "I just have one more question."
"Of course"
"What color was the clay?"
Farazi blinked, confused. "Clay? What clay?"
"The clay you must have stuck in your eyes and ears," said Ana, grinning, "to remain so amazingly fucking ignorant of everything about you.”
― Robert Jackson Bennett, The Tainted Cup

“I took some nationalistic pride in it, too-a Canadian, the top U.S. Air Force test pilot graduate! I was even interviewed by a reporter for the Cold Lake newspaper. No one at the paper could think of a title for the article, though, so they called out to the test center, and whoever answered the phone said, “Just call it 'Canadian Wins Top Test Pilot' or something to that effect." A friend mailed me a copy of the article, which was a nice keepsake as well as a reality check for my ego. The headline that ran? "Canadian Wins Top Test Pilot or Something to that Effect.”
― Chris Hadfield, An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth / You Are Here: Around the World in 92 Minutes