“Prices of semicolons, plot devices, prologues and inciting incidents continued to fall yesterday, lopping twenty points off the TomJones Index.”

“[E]very plot, worth the name, must be elaborated to its dénouement before anything be attempted with the pen. It is only with the dénouement constantly in view that we can plot its indispensable air of consequence, or causation, by making the incidents, and especially the tone at all points tend to the development of the intention.”

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a completely ad hoc plot device.”

“How is your father?” she asks disinterestedly. “A contrivance,” I mutter. “A plot device.”

“The inciting incident is how you get (characters) to do something. It's the doorway through which they can't return, you know. The story takes care of the rest.”

“Ah, pay no heed if your enemies laugh. They'll not be able to once you lop off their heads.”