Date: November and December 1853, 1856

"To befriend Bartleby; to humor him in his strange wilfulness, will cost me little or nothing, while I lay up in my soul what will eventually prove a sweet morsel for my conscience."

— Melville, Herman (1819-1891)

Date: 1983

"My brain is like oatmeal."

— Hughes, John (1950-2009)

Date: 1997

"The Loaf, the indispensible point of convergence upon every British table, the solid British Quartern Loaf, is like the Soul, Emptiness."

— Pynchon, Thomas (b. 1937)

Date: April 4, 2011

"Theodicy-god has evolved now to both substance and not. / With handy metaphysical blades to slice brain meat from mind."

— Williams, C. K. (b. 1936)