My fear now is of cliche, of complacency, of not being able to feel authenticity in myself and those around me. - John Hawkes

Plenty of masterpieces are just one cliché after another, Mozart for example, but that's quite natural, because if you think about it, two clichés that have met one another can beget the most original and profound effect. - Thomas Ades

The door had been locked from the inside. The windows were barred, locked from the inside, didn't open and were made of brick. All the books were chained to the shelf save one, open on the table at a page entitled 'How to secure a room from the inside'. All the boxes had been ticked. And even the pen used to make the ticks was one of those ones on a little chain you get in banks.- John Finnemore, Souvenir Programme