Bentley: What is it, Major Lawrence, that attracts you personally to the desert?

Lawrence: It’s clean.

—Lawrence of Arabia

He who waits will see what is in the grass.

—Burning Grass, Cyprian Ekwensi

“There is a whirlwind in southern Morocco, the aejej, against which the fellahin defend themselves with knives.”

—The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje