“It really strikes me how much of your energy in America, especially if you're from a working back-ground, is spent just keeping your head above water. It really saps your grace and your strength.” IfsAmericaEnergyWaterGraceStrikesSap Author:George Saunders
“The point of the dragonfly's terrible lip, the giant water bug, birdsong, or the beautiful dazzle and flash of sunlighted minnows,is not that it all fits together like clockwork--for it doesn'tbut that it all flows so freely wild, like the creek, that it all surges in such a free, finged tangle. Freedom is the world's water and weather, the world's nourishment freely given, its soil and sap: and the creator loves pizzazz.” WorldTogetherBeautifulGivenWaterNatureFreedomFitTerribleFlowLipsCreatorWeatherGiantsSoilWildernessFlashBugsNourishmentSapClockworkDazzleCreeksBirdsongDragonfliesMinnowsPizzazz Author:Annie Dillard
“The larch... is not only preserved from decay and the worm by the great bitterness of its sap, but also it cannot be kindled with fire nor ignite of itself, unless like stone in a limekiln it is burned with other wood... This is because there is a very small proportion of the elements of fire and air in its composition, which is a dense and solid mass of moisture and the earthy, so that it has no open pores through which fire can find its way... Further, its weight will not let it float in water.” WayWaterFireAirElementsMassStonesWeightWoodsProportionBitternessDecayBurnedCompositionWormsFloatsDenseSapIgniteMoisture Author:Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
“Writing an informative yet compact thriller is a lot like making maple sugar candy. You have to tap hundreds of trees - boil vats and vats of raw sap - evaporate the water - and keep boiling until you've distilled a tiny nugget that encapsulates the essence.” WritingWaterTreeEssenceTinySugarCandyThrillersSapBoilingCompactInformativeMapleNuggetsVat Author:Dan Brown