Everyone is right up there at the very brink of their pain limit.
Each life is a game of chess that went to hell on the seventh move(...)
Deciding to write a novel about something - as opposed to finding you are writing a novel around something - sounds to me like a good evocation of writer's block.
Weapons are like money; no one knows the meaning of enough.
I hire tea by the tea bag.
They're always looking forward to going places they're just coming back from, or regretting doing things they haven't yet done. They say hello when they mean goodbye.