... a blank-verse play.

... how slow his soul sailed on, how swift his ship.

—William Shakespeare, Cymbeline, I.iii.

... The Koran.

Good and evil are not alike. Requite evil with good, and he who is your enemy will become your dearest friend.

—The Koran, translated by N. J. Dawood, 41.

... about meditation, consciousness, and creativity.

You don't need anything outside of the work. There have been a lot of great books written, and the authors are long since dead and you can't dig them up. But you've got that book, and a book can make you dream and make you think about things.

—David Lynch, Catching the Big Fish, 19.

... a history of England.

Man acknowledges in the inferior animals no right inconsistent with his own convenience.

—Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England, chap. XIX.

... an image.

The lights gathering
on the night lake
sing a thousand songs
of the sleeping sun.

—Henry Dumas, “Image,” Thoughts/Images.

... a novel.

"This is the real article. It is double-rectified busthead from Madison County, aged in the keg. A little spoonful would do you a power of good."

"I would not put a thief in my mouth to steal my brains."

—Charles Portis, True Grit, p. 61 (of 224).