Terry Pratchett
- The job of the Watch
Only crimes could take place in the darkness. Punishment had to be done in the light. That was the job of a good Watchman, Carrot always said. To light a candle in the dark.
Terry Pratchett
- Leonard of Quirm
Leonard's incredible brain sizzled away alarmingly, an overloaded chip pan on the Stove of Life. It was impossible to know what he would think of next, because he was constantly reprogrammed by the whole universe. The sight of a waterfall or a soaring bird would send him spinning down some new path of practical speculation that invariably ended in a heap of wire and springs and a cry of "I think I know what I did wrong."
Terry Pratchett
- Foul Ole Ron
There was this to be said about the Smell of Foul Ole Ron, an odour so intense that it took on a personality of its own and fully justified the capital letter: after the initial shock the organs of smell just gave up and shut down, as if no more able to comprehend the thing than an oyster can comprehend the ocean. After some minutes in its presence, wax would start to trickle out of people's ears and their hair would begin to bleach.
Douglas Adams
- Unfortunate choice of clothing
He wore a heavy old light brown suit which looked as if it had been worn extensively for bramble hacking expeditions in some distant and better past, a red checked shirt which failed entirely to harmonize with the suit, and a green striped tie which refused to speak to either of them. He also wore thick metal-rimmed spectacles, which probably accounted at least in part for his dress sense.
Austin Freeman
- The Red Thumb Mark
My veneration for that lady's moral qualities was excessive, but her conversation drove me to the verge of insanity -- an insanity not entirely free from homicidal tendencies.
Gordon Levine
- The Mission
Almost everyone at the Mission is missing something - an eye, a leg, a parent - and almost everyone is smiling. They turn their smiles on you. A man on crutches invites you inside, where a group of dirty underfed beaming children are learning Ave Maria from a woman the size of a bear. The air smells like unwashed bodies and hope.
Terry Pratchett
- Pride in Cockbill Street
Women in those days had elbows that moved like pistons. And it was all about survival, and survival was all about pride. You didn't have much control over your life, but by Jimmy you could keep it clean and show the world you were poor but respectable. That was dread: the dread of falling back, losing standards, becoming no better than those people who bred and fought and stole in that ferocious turmoil of a rookery known as the Shades.
Neil Gaiman
- American Gods
The drink was a golden color. Shadow took a sip, tasting an odd blend of sour and sweet on his tongue. He could taste the alcohol underneath, and a strange blend of flavor. It reminded him a little of prison hooch, brewed in a garbage bag from rotten fruit and bread and sugar and water, but it was sweeter, and far stranger.
Terry Pratchett
- Reaper Man
You'd see buildings grow; you'd see attackers driven off; you'd see fires put out. You'd see the city was alive but you wouldn't see people, because they'd move too fast. The life of a city, the thing that drives it, isn't some sort of mysterious force. The life of a city is people.
