... a preface.

When we have what is called a popular movement very few people who take part in it know what it is all about. I once saw a real popular movement in London. People running excitedly through the streets. Everyone who saw them doing it immediately joined in the rush. They ran simply because everyone else was doing it. It was most impressive to see thousands of people sweeping along at full speed like that. There could be no doubt that it was literally a popular movement. I ascertained afterwards that it was started by a runaway cow. That cow had an important share in my education as a political philosopher; and I can assure you that if you will study crowds, and lost and terrified animals, and things like that, instead of reading books and newspaper articles, you will learn a great deal about politics from them. Most general elections, for instance, are nothing but stampedes.

—George Bernard Shaw, preface to The Apple Cart.

... an autobiographical novel.

Isn't life a story?

No. A story is arranged. Life is a file.

—Christine Brooke-Rose, Remake, p. 65.

... a Culture novel.

"Are you well enough to invigilate?"

"Fuck me, no; drunk as a desert spring."

—Iain M. Banks, The Player of Games, p. 54 of 391.

... a sci-fi novel.

"Ships have feelings."

"Yes, of course." Without feelings insignificant decisions become excruciating attempts to compare endless arrays of inconsequential things. It's just easier to handle those with emotions.

—Ann Leckie, Ancillary Justice, chapter 6.