Joe

“It was not guilt that froze me. I had taught myself never to feel guilt It was not a ghastly sense of loss that froze me. I had taught myself to covet nothing. It was not a loathing of death that froze me. I had taught myself to think of death as a friend. It was not heartbroken rage against injustice that froze me. I had taught myself that a human being might as well took for diamond tiaras in the gutter as for rewards and punishments that were fair. It was not the thought that I was so unloved that froze me. I had taught myself to do without love. It was not the thought that God was cruel that froze me. I had taught myself never to expect anything from Him. What froze me was the fact that I had absolutely no reason to move in any direction. What had made me move through so many dead and pointless years was curiosity. Now even that had flickered out”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Jr

“The vampire live on, and cannot die by mere passing of the time,
he can flourish when that he can fatten on the blood of the living. Even more,
we have seen amongst us that he can even grow younger, that his vital faculties
grow strenuous, and seem as though they refresh themselves when his special
pabulum is plenty.

"But he cannot flourish without this diet, he eat not as others. Even friend
Jonathan, who lived with him for weeks, did never see him eat, never! He
throws no shadow, he make in the mirror no reflect, as again Jonathan observe.
He has the strength of many of his hand, witness again Jonathan when he shut
the door against the wolves, and when he help him from the diligence too. He
can transform himself to wolf, as we gather from the ship arrival in Whitby,
when he tear open the dog, he can be as bat, as Madam Mina saw him on the
window at Whitby, and as friend John saw him fly from this so near house, and
as my friend Quincey saw him at the window of Miss Lucy.

"He can come in mist which he create, that noble ship's captain proved him
of this, but, from what we know, the distance he can make this mist is limited,
and it can only be round himself.

"He come on moonlight rays as elemental dust, as again Jonathan saw
those sisters in the castle of Dracula. He become so small, we ourselves saw
Miss Lucy, ere she was at peace, slip through a hairbreadth space at the tomb
door. He can, when once he find his way, come out from anything or into
anything, no matter how close it be bound or even fused up with fire, solder
you call it. He can see in the dark, no small power this, in a world which is one
half shut from the light. Ah, but hear me through.

"He can do all these things, yet he is not free. Nay, he is even more
prisoner than the slave of the galley, than the madman in his cell. He cannot go
where he lists, he who is not of nature has yet to obey some of nature's laws,
why we know not. He may not enter anywhere at the first, unless there be some
one of the household who bid him to come, though afterwards he can come as
he please. His power ceases, as does that of all evil things, at the coming of the
day.

"Only at certain times can he have limited freedom. If he be not at the
place whither he is bound, he can only change himself at noon or at exact
sunrise or sunset. These things we are told, and in this record of ours we have
proof by inference. Thus, whereas he can do as he will within his limit, when
he have his earth-home, his coffin-home, his hell-home, the place unhallowed,
as we saw when he went to the grave of the suicide at Whitby, still at other
time he can only change when the time come. It is said, too, that he can only
pass running water at the slack or the flood of the tide. Then there are things
which so afflict him that he has no power, as the garlic that we know of, and as
for things sacred, as this symbol, my crucifix, that was amongst us even now
when we resolve, to them he is nothing, but in their presence he take his place
far off and silent with respect. There are others, too, which I shall tell you of,
lest in our seeking we may need them.”
― Bram Stoker, Dracula

“The nosferatu do not die like the bee when he sting once. He is only stronger, and being stronger, have yet more power to work evil. This vampire which is amongst us is of himself so strong in person as twenty men, he is of cunning more than mortal, for his cunning be the growth of ages, he have still the aids of necromancy, which is, as his etymology imply, the divination by the dead, and all the dead that he can come nigh to are for him at command; he is brute, and more than brute; he is devil in callous, and the heart of him is not; he can, within his range, direct the elements, the storm, the fog, the thunder; he can command all the meaner things, the rat, and the owl, and the bat, the moth, and the fox, and the wolf, he can grow and become small; and he can at times vanish and come unknown.”
― Bram Stoker, Dracula

“It was a charming and delightful day at Lord's as Ford and Arthur tumbled haphazardly out of a space-time anomaly and hit the immaculate turf rather hard.
The applause of the crowd was tremendous. It wasn't for them, but instinctively they bowed anyway, which was fortunate because the small red heavy ball which the crowd actually had been applauding whistled mere millimetres over Arthur's head. In the crowd a man collapsed.
They threw themselves back to the ground which seemed to spin hideously around them.
"What was that?" hissed Arthur.
"Something red," hissed Ford back at him.
"Where are we?"
"Er, somewhere green."
"Shapes," muttered Arthur. "I need shapes."
The applause of the crowd had been rapidly succeeded by gasps of astonishment, and the awkward titters of hundreds of people who could not yet make up their minds about whether to believe what they had just seen or not.
"This your sofa?" said a voice.
"What was that?" whispered Ford.
Arthur looked up.
"Something blue," he said.
"Shape?" said Ford.
Arthur looked again.
"It is shaped," he hissed at Ford, with his brow savagely furrowing, "like a policeman."
They remained crouched there for a few moments, frowning deeply. The blue thing shaped like a policeman tapped them both on the shoulders.
"Come on, you two," the shape said, "let's be having you."
These words had an electrifying effect on Arthur. He leapt to his feet like an author hearing the phone ring and shot a series of startled glanced at the panorama around him which had suddenly settled down into something of quite terrifying ordinariness.
"Where did you get this from?" he yelled at the policeman shape.
"What did you say?" said the startled shape.
"This is Lord's Cricket Ground, isn't it?" snapped Arthur. "Where did you find it, how did you get it here? I think," he added, clasping his hand to his brow, "that I had better calm down." He squatted down abruptly in front of Ford.
"It is a policeman," he said, "What do we do?"
Ford shrugged.
"What do you want to do?" he said.
"I want you," said Arthur, "to tell me that I have been dreaming for the last five years."
Ford shrugged again, and obliged.
"You've been dreaming for the last five years," he said.
Arthur got to his feet.
"It's all right, officer," he said. "I've been dreaming for the last five years. Ask him," he added, pointing at Ford, "he was in it.”
― Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe and Everything