Sue

“All food available in the depths of the ocean is animal matter, and the food chain depends upon the constant rain of minuscule particles ('undersea snow') from the surface layers, usually the remains of animals that have died. 'When I think of the floor of the deep sea,' wrote Rachel Carson, 'the single overwhelming fact that possesses my imagination is the accumulation of sediments. I always see the steady, unremitting, downward drift of materials from above, flake upon flake, layer upon layer - a drift that has continued for hundreds of millions of years, that will go on as long as there are seas and continents.' Life in the depths depends upon death in the shallows.”
― Richard Ellis, Singing Whales and Flying Squid: The Discovery of Marine Life

“Then a beat-up car lurched into sight towing an even more beat-up car. As the cars came near, I saw that they were connected back to front by a loop made of two seat belts buckled to each other. That was the only time I ever saw a Russian use a seat belt for any purpose at all.”
― Ian Frazier, Travels in Siberia

“After a fellow has been through several kinds of hell and high water, it isn't exactly new to him if he is told that he may die. though it does give me a pain to think that just as I had given up the ship you fellow should arrive, only to have me die on your hands now that the fight is over. But that's all in the game.”
― Jack O'Brien, Silver Chief: Dog of the North

“We are in the process of instituting a reign of terror on earth, and there’s only one word that justifies that as far as these savages are concerned: the word of this or that god. In name of a divine entity we can do whatever the hell we like and most of those fools down there will swallow it like a bitter pill.”
― Salman Rushdie, Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights