Something Rotten -- Jasper Fforde
"We were still keen on taking him alive at this point, so we had darted him with a small dose of slapstick. Theoretically, we needed only to track outbreaks of custard-pie-in-the-face routines and walking-into-lamppost gags within fiction to lead us to the cannibalistic man-beast. It was an experimental idea and, sadly, also a dismal failure. Aside from Lafeu's celebrated mention of custard in All's Well That Ends Well and the ludicrous four-wheeled-chaise sequence in the Pickwick Papers, little was noticed. The slapstick either hadn't been strong enough or have been diluted by the BookWorld's natural disinclination to visual jokes." --Something Rotten, page 2
"I had retreated into the old Thursday, the one who preferred the black-and-white certainties of policing fiction to the ambiguous midtone greys of emotion." --Something Rotten, page 18
"Hamlet had been a late addition to my plans. Increasingly concerned over reports that he was being misrepresented as something of a 'ditherer' in the Outland, he had requested leave to see for himself. This was unusual in that fictional characters are rarely troubled by public perception, but Hamlet would worry about having nothing to worry about if he had nothing to worry about, and since he was the indisputable star of the Shakespeare canon and had lost the Most Troubled Romantic Lead to Heathcliff once again at this year's BookWorld awards, the Council of Genres thought they should do something to appease him." --Something Rotten, page 21
"If the real world were a book, it would never find a publisher. Overlong, detailed to the point of distraction--and ultimately, without major resolution." --Something Rotten, page 76
"'You don't need to look in the trucks,' I told him. 'We don't need to look in the trucks,' echoed the border guard. 'We can go through unimpeded.' 'You can go through unimpeded.' 'You're going to be nicer to your girlfriend.' 'I'm definitely going to be nicer to my girlfriend...Move along." --Something Rotten, page 282
"I had retreated into the old Thursday, the one who preferred the black-and-white certainties of policing fiction to the ambiguous midtone greys of emotion." --Something Rotten, page 18
"Hamlet had been a late addition to my plans. Increasingly concerned over reports that he was being misrepresented as something of a 'ditherer' in the Outland, he had requested leave to see for himself. This was unusual in that fictional characters are rarely troubled by public perception, but Hamlet would worry about having nothing to worry about if he had nothing to worry about, and since he was the indisputable star of the Shakespeare canon and had lost the Most Troubled Romantic Lead to Heathcliff once again at this year's BookWorld awards, the Council of Genres thought they should do something to appease him." --Something Rotten, page 21
"If the real world were a book, it would never find a publisher. Overlong, detailed to the point of distraction--and ultimately, without major resolution." --Something Rotten, page 76
"'You don't need to look in the trucks,' I told him. 'We don't need to look in the trucks,' echoed the border guard. 'We can go through unimpeded.' 'You can go through unimpeded.' 'You're going to be nicer to your girlfriend.' 'I'm definitely going to be nicer to my girlfriend...Move along." --Something Rotten, page 282