“Be uncomfortable; be sand, not oil, to the machinery of the world.”

“I don't want you to sketch this cripple, this freak of nature, I want you to slaughter him, crucify him, to nail him to your paper with charcoal!”

“Even the most fanciful story contains nuggets of truth. As readers, our job is to mine them.”

“The machinery of the world is far too complex for the simplicity of men.”

“It's not oil that runs the world, it's shame.”

“We take a handful of sand from the endless landscape of awareness around us and call that handful of sand the world.”

“In that moment, the machinery of the world lined up. Somewhere a clock struck midnight, and Hugo's future seemed to fall perfectly into place.”