a Luna moth
“And all of a sudden I remembered once how into a room where I was sitting one night, a big pale apple-green moth, big as a bullbat and soft and silent as a dream—a Luna moth, the name is, and it is a wonderful name—came flying in. Somebody had left the screen door open, and the moth drifted in over the tables and chairs like a big pale-green, silky, live leaf, drifting and dancing along without any word under the electric light where a Luna moth certainly did not belong. The night air coming into the room now was like that.”
—Robert Penn Warren, All the King’s Men, 1946.
hot, melted-butter colored sunlight
“I could sleep late, and then wake up and not move, just watching the hot, melted-butter colored sunlight pour through the cracks in the shade, for my hotel was not the best in town and my room was not the best in the hotel.”
—Robert Penn Warren, All the King’s Men, 1946.
the lemon-pale sun
“. . . the lemon-pale sun of late autumn. . . .”
—Robert Penn Warren, All the King’s Men, 1946.
A Powdery Pastel
“He stopped on the steps and waited, a not very tall old man, and thin, wearing blue jean pants and a blue shirt washed so much that it had a powdery pastel shade to it and a black bow tie, the kind that comes ready-tied on an elastic band. . . . The blue of the eyes was pale and washed out like the blue of the shirt.”
—Robert Penn Warren, describing Willie Stark in All the King’s Men, 1946.
A diamond
“‘A diamond ain’t a thing in the world but a piece of dirt that got awful hot.’”
—Robert Penn Warren, Willie Stark wisdom from All the King’s Men, 1946.
the toad bears a jewel in its forehead
“How life is strange and changeful, and the crystal is in the steel at the point of fracture, and the toad bears a jewel in its forehead, and the meaning of moments passes like the breeze that scarcely ruffles the leaf of the willow.”
—Robert Penn Warren, All the King’s Men, 1946.
The Nature Trail
“– Rhubarb leaves make a light-green-colored dye.
– Saffron makes the brightest of golds.
– Dandelion greens make magenta.”
—Amy Sedaris, some delightful color trivia from I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence, 2006.
The candy-striped pole
“The candy-striped pole, which indicates nobility proud and ancient along the palace-bordered canals of Venice, indicated merely the humble barber shop along the main street of Dawson’s Landing.”
—Mark Twain (1835-1910), Pudd’nhead Wilson.
gray-green
“If anybody had noticed Tom’s face at that time, the gray-green color of it might have provoked curiosity; but nobody did.”
—Mark Twain (1835-1910), Pudd’nhead Wilson.
quite white
“The second convict was short and plump. Almost hairless, he was quite white. He looked like something exposed to light by turning over rotting logs or planks. . . .”
—William Faulkner, Old Man, 1939.