“Stephen loved and esteemed Sophie more than any woman he knew, but he expected heroic virtue in on one: not heroic virtue of long duration, with few allies and they ten thousand miles away. Ten thousand miles, and how many weeks, months, even years? Time meant one thing in an active, ever-changing life; quite another in a remote provincial house, cooped up with a strong woman devoid of scruple, convinced of her divine rectitude.”
O’Brien, Patrick. ”Chapter Six.” H.M.S. Surprise.
“Tomorrow night, when Phoebe doth behold
Her silver visage in the wat’ry glass,
Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass,
A time that lovers’ flights doth still conceal”
Shakespeare. “Act One: Scene One: Lines 209-212.” A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
“His heart beat faster and faster as Daisy’s white face came up to his own. He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God. So he waited, listening for a moment longer to the tuning-fork that had been struck upon a star. Then he kissed her. At his lips’ touch she blossomed for him like a flower and the incarnation was complete.”
Fitzgerald, Scott. ”Chapter Six.” The Great Gatsby
“Drove so long and so far on some nights that he would actually fall asleep at the wheel. One second he was thinking about his characters and the next he’d be drifting, a beautiful intoxicating richness, about to go all the way under and then some last alarm would sound.
Lola.
Nothing more exhilarating (he wrote) than saving yourself by the simple act of waking.”
Díaz, Junot. ”Sentimental Education.” The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.