“I need to borrow this.” Miguel, to the portrait in the tomb of Oscar de la Cruz, ‘Coco’

“He sounded like a man who had slept well and didn’t owe too much money.” – Raymond Chandler, ‘The Big Sleep’

“I went back to the office and sat in my swivel chair and tried to catch up on my foot-dangling.” – Raymond Chandler, ‘The Big Sleep’

“…and I guessed that someone might even be selling tickets to see shipwrecked sailor.” – Gabriel García Márquez, ‘The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor’

“…if I had had a bottle at that moment I would have put one of the cards into it, playing shipwrecked sailor…” – Gabriel García Márquez, ‘The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor’

“It was a mathematician’s response. Of course she was correct, but the answer was useless.” – Percival Everett, ‘Dr. No’

“He’s been told that nothing is better than meeting God and cold coffee is better than nothing” – Percival Everett, ‘Dr. No’

“Everywhere…the same misery under a different guise…always someone with a little more money, a little more power, and he owned you.” – Silvia Moreno-Garcia, ‘The Daughter of Doctor Moreau’

“The word war is far // “Furry” says my boy / about the cat // I think anthrax / and small pox vax // Pour hot water on dried nettles” – Hoa Nguyen, “Up Nursing”

“But he can’t. The rest of the day was already happening, had already pretty much happened when Gabe kept looking downhill…” – Stephen Graham Jones, ‘The Only Good Indians’