Paul Weiss

“Perhaps it would be a good idea if everyone just stopped writing for a couple of years and allowed readers to catch up.”
― John Boyne, A Ladder to the Sky

“May I offer some refreshment?" Miss Pink asked, mincingly. "A cup of tea?"
Lady Lydiard shook her head.
"A glass of water?"
Lady Lydiard declined the last hospitable proposal with an exclamation of disgust. "Have you got any beer?" she inquired.
"I beg your Ladyship's pardon," said Miss Pink, doubting the evidence of her own ears. "Did you say - beer?"
Lady Lydiard gesticulated vehemently with her fan. "Yes, to be sure! Beer! beer!"
Miss Pink rose, with a countenance expressive of genteel disgust, and rang the bell. "I think you have beer downstairs, Susan?" she said, when the maid appeared at the door.
"Yes, Miss."
"A glass of beer for Lady Lydiard," said Miss Pink, under protest.
"Bring it in a jug," shouted her Ladyship, as the maid left the room.”
― Wilkie Collins, My Lady's Money

“Tell them they can be great someday, like us. Tell them they belong among us, no matter how we treat them. Tell them they must earn the respect which everyone else receives by default. Tell them there is a standard for acceptance; that standard is simply perfection. Kill those who scoff at those contradictions, and tell the rest that the dead deserved annihilation for their weakness and doubt. Then they'll break themselves trying for what they'll never achieve”
― N.K. Jemisin, The Fifth Season

“She had Pagan eyes, full of nocturnal mysteries . . . Assuming that the souls of men and women were visible essences, you could fancy the colour of Eustacia's soul to be flame-like.”
― Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native