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"1 THE 24TH MILITARY HOSPITAL was a cluster of shacks on the edge of the city. It would have taken an able-bodied man a good half hour’s walk to reach it from the end of the tramline. The tram went into the world, the big city and life. But to the inmates of the 24th Military Hospital the tram was out of reach."

"I had yanked down the electric light, I didn’t want to remain in the dark, a candle was still to be found, so I climbed onto a chair, stuck the candle into the sword pommel, lit it and then sat far into the night under the weak light of the angel."

Kafka, Franz. The Diaries of Franz Kafka (The Schocken Kafka Library) (p. 283). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

"Life had beaten him; but you can still beat life by turning your face away. Better to sink than rise. Down, down into the ghost-kingdom, the shadowy world where shame, effort, decency do not exist!"

Orwell, George. Keep the Aspidistra Flying (p. 158). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Kindle Edition.

“For to-night we’ll merry be,
For to-night we’ll merry be,
For to-night we’ll merry be-e-e—
To-morrow we’ll be so-ober!”

Orwell, George. Keep the Aspidistra Flying (p. 133). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Kindle Edition.

"AS THE clock struck one Gordon slammed the shop door to and hurried, almost ran, to the branch of the Westminster Bank down the street."

Orwell, George. Keep the Aspidistra Flying (p. 114). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Kindle Edition.

The “never the time and the place” motif is not made enough of in novels.

Orwell, George. Keep the Aspidistra Flying (p. 90). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Kindle Edition.

"He stuck it into an envelope, addressed it and at once went out to get stamps from the slot machine. Post it to-night: these things look different in the morning. He dropped it into the pillar-box. So there was another friend gone west."

Orwell, George. Keep the Aspidistra Flying (p. 74). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Kindle Edition.

Their combined ages were two hundred and sixty-three years. None of them had ever been out of England, fought in war, been in prison, ridden a horse, travelled in an aeroplane, got married or given birth to a child. There seemed no reason why they should not continue in the same style until they died. Year in, year out, nothing ever happened in the Comstock family.

Orwell, George. Keep the Aspidistra Flying (p. 44).

"The upturned beam of a car, somewhere in the street parallel to Willowbed Road, penetrated the blind and threw into silhouette a leaf of the aspidistra, shaped like Agamemnon’s sword."

Orwell, George. Keep the Aspidistra Flying (p. 25). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Kindle Edition.

"The upturned beam of a car, somewhere in the street parallel to Willowbed Road, penetrated the blind and threw into silhouette a leaf of the aspidistra, shaped like Agamemnon’s sword."

Orwell, George. Keep the Aspidistra Flying (p. 25). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Kindle Edition.

"His mind was sticky with boredom. He couldn’t cope with rhymes and adjectives. You can’t, with only twopence halfpenny in your pocket."

Orwell, George. Keep the Aspidistra Flying (p. 3). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Kindle Edition.

"BETWEEN THEM THEY got Verne to his feet. He mumbled something they did not understand. They half carried, half dragged him down the hall to the stairs, down the stairs onto the porch. The night was cold and dark. Stars shone, scattered above them in the sky."

Dick, Philip K.. Gather Yourselves Together (p. 354). Mariner Books Classics. Kindle Edition.

They walked along together, neither of them saying anything. “Are you mad because I saw you?” Carl asked. Barbara did not answer.

Dick, Philip K.. Gather Yourselves Together (p. 303). Mariner Books Classics. Kindle Edition.

“I thought we might hitchhike.” Mrs. Fitter raised her magazine. “Now I’ve heard everything.” She adjusted her glasses. “Twelve years old and they want to hitchhike.”

Dick, Philip K.. Gather Yourselves Together (p. 279). Mariner Books Classics. Kindle Edition.

"This world, the machines, the chimneys, the heaps of slag, the hearths, the furnaces, the towers, the concrete buildings, the smell of molten metal, this world could not be escaped. She was part of it, and whether she liked it or not she had to remain with it. She could not go back."

Dick, Philip K.. Gather Yourselves Together (p. 260). Mariner Books Classics. Kindle Edition.

"BY EVENING THE fog had come in over all the world. Verne carried a big floor lamp from the manager’s house over to the dorm. He plugged it in by his bed and clicked it on."

Dick, Philip K.. Gather Yourselves Together (p. 233). Mariner Books Classics. Kindle Edition.

"THE STATION MANAGER’S house was set apart from the rest of the buildings. It did not look like them at all."

Dick, Philip K.. Gather Yourselves Together (p. 192). Mariner Books Classics. Kindle Edition.

“Sounds like work.” “Take it or leave it.” She opened the door. “I’ll take it,” Verne said. He followed after her quickly.

Dick, Philip K.. Gather Yourselves Together (p. 157). Mariner Books Classics. Kindle Edition.

"I don't know who was more ambitious-the doomsayers or Violet-but it's hard to match the superstitious for great expectations."

-Toni Morrison "Jazz" (pg. 9).

“Well?” Teddy said. “Where’ll we go now?”

Dick, Philip K.. Gather Yourselves Together (p. 128). Mariner Books Classics. Kindle Edition.

“What happened? Why did you go back?” “A high school boy. Practicing on his oboe.” Teddy shrugged. They walked on.

Dick, Philip K.. Gather Yourselves Together (p. 89). Mariner Books Classics. Kindle Edition.

"Without resistance, he allowed himself to be lost into it."

Dick, Philip K.. Gather Yourselves Together (p. 72). Mariner Books Classics. Kindle Edition.

“Drunk as an owl.” She did not stir. If he thought this was something—

Dick, Philip K.. Gather Yourselves Together (p. 36). Mariner Books Classics. Kindle Edition.

"In the later nights, when Penny was gone so often, Barbara had plenty of time to think about herself and what direction she was moving in."

Dick, Philip K.. Gather Yourselves Together (p. 15). Mariner Books Classics. Kindle Edition.

“The only thing I’m afraid of about this country is that its government will someday become so monstrous that the smallest person in it will be trampled underfoot, and then it wouldn’t be worth living in. The only thing in America that is still unique in this tired world is that a man can go as far as his brains will take him or he can go to hell if he wants to, but it won’t be that way much longer.”

"Mr. Stone set a watchman in church yesterday. He should have provided me with one. I need a watchman to lead me around and declare what he seeth every hour on the hour. I need a watchman to tell me this is what a man says but this is what he means, to draw a line down the middle and say here is this justice and there is that justice and make me understand the difference."

Alexandra was at the kitchen table absorbed in culinary rites. Jean Louise tiptoed past her to no avail. “Come look here.”

Lee, Harper. Go Set a Watchman: A Novel (p. 19). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

“You know, if you get in trouble at school or anything—you just let me know. I’ll take care of you.” Jem sauntered from the livingroom, leaving Jean Louise wide-eyed and wondering if she were fully awake.

Lee, Harper. Go Set a Watchman: A Novel (p. 19). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

The one human being she had ever fully and wholeheartedly trusted had failed her; the only man she had ever known to whom she could point and say with expert knowledge, “He is a gentleman, in his heart he is a gentleman,” had betrayed her, publicly, grossly, and shamelessly.

Lee, Harper. Go Set a Watchman: A Novel (p. 19). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

“Home for nineteen hours and you’ve already indulged your predilection for ablutionary excesses, hah! A classic example of Watsonian Behaviorism—think I’ll write you up and send you to the AMA Journal.”

Lee, Harper. Go Set a Watchman: A Novel (p. 18). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.