“Host” from Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace, p. 287
SOLOMON: Never mind that. Anyway, so what you have is a judicial disaster, and because of that judicial disaster, we have all the wars that you see now. Because of their inability to write a constitution, they ruined their chances for survival. That is my theory — my philosophical theory. If you don’t write a book by which you’re going to rule yourself, you are opening the door to all kinds of things only God knows.
How Should a Person Be by Sheila Heti, p. 215
I put the watch on, pulled the elastic of my sleeve down over it so that the glow of the dial wouldn’t be visible by accident, and sat back against the hill to make a few quick notes. While there was still some natural light, I could write and watch.
Zahra watched me for a while, then laid her hand on my arm. “Teach me to do that,” she whispered.
Parable of the Sower, Octavia Butler, p. 185