Paulene Tempest

“The truck looked like a beater, maybe built in the 1950's, mostly rust on the outside, but a spaceship on the inside.”
― Lisa Kaniut Cobb, Down in the Valley

“Mastering the technology to create effigies of our ourselves, will be our downfall.”
― A.R. Merrydew

“What I mean is, even an ordinary guy like me sometimes can think that everything is pointless. Why do I wake up and eat? It all ends up shit in the end. Why do I go to school and study? Even in the unlikely chance that I become successful in the future, I’m still going to die. You can dress nice and make people envious, or get rich, but none of it means anything. It doesn’t mean a damn thing. Anyway, maybe such meaninglessness is appropriate for this shitty nation.
But—and here’s the ‘but'—you and me, we have other emotions like happiness, right? We can find enjoyment. It’s nothing that amounts to much—but isn’t that what fills the emptiness inside us? At least for me, that’s the only answer I know.”
― Koushun Takami, Battle Royale

“Chase looked like a drowning man without a life preserver, and by the look in his eyes, he was going under for the third time.

“I knew you would be like the waters of the South Pacific Ocean.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“I liken people to different bodies of water,” he quickly explained.

“You what?”

“Each ocean has a different personality,” he said to clarify. “The Pacific Ocean is warmer and inviting, but the color is muddied in places. The Arctic Ocean is cold and very uninviting, one might even say that it is not very appealing, but it’s full of life. Then there is the South Pacific Ocean, warm, inviting, and crystal clear. It has this purity to it. Why, the coloring of the water is some of the brightest blue I’ve ever seen in my entire life. There are even places that you can see thirty meters down.”
― Diane Merrill Wigginton, A Compromising Position