Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen: Reaper's Gale

"Do you expect everyone to speak plainly? Do you expect anyone to speak plainly? What sort of world do you in habit, Acquitor? Not the same as mine, that's for certain. For every word we speak, are there not a thousand left unsaid? Do we not often say one thing and mean the opposite? Woman, look at us--look at yourself. Our souls might as well be trapped inside a huanted keep. Sure, we built it--each of us--with our own hands, but we've forgotten half the rooms, we get lost int he corridors. We stumble into rooms of raging heat, then stagger back away, lest our own emotions roast us alive. Other places are cold as ice--as cold as this frozen land around us. Still others remain ever dark--no lantern will work, every candle dies as if starved of air, and we grope around, collide with unseen furniture, with walls. We loook out through the high windows, but distrust all that we see. We armor ourselves against unreal phantasms, yet shadows and whispers make us bleed."
~Udinaas, pg. 263

"When we must wait, our minds fill with sludge, random thoughts, like so much refuse. When we are driven to action, our current is swift, the water seemingly clear, cold, and sharp."
~Icarium, pg. 430