“about clichés. Avoid them like the plague.”

“A creative writing teacher at San Jose State used to say about clichés: 'Avoid them like the plague.' Then he'd laugh at his own joke. The class laughed along with him, but I always thought clichés got a bum rap. Because, often, they're dead-on. But the aptness of the clichéd saying is overshadowed by the nature of the saying as a cliché.”

“There was no reason for Bella Swan to cross paths with me. She would be avoided like the plague she was.”

“It is far easier for a woman to lead a blameless life than it is for a man; all she has to do is to avoid sexual intercourse like the plague.”

“I'd never been so mesmerized or captivated or drawn to any guy in my life. Heck, I'd been avoiding guys like the plague.”

“Monotonous talk of the end of American hegemony, the universal cliché of the period, is mostly a way of avoiding mounting a serious opposition to it.”