‘…and the only sound that’s left, after the ambulances go, is Cinderella sweeping up on Desolation Row.’

Bob Dylan, Desolation Row.

‘In the greatness and pride of this city lies a certain unmistakable stillness; and all its sounds are crowned with a soundlessness so powerful that when a person has spent some time in rural silence and retirement, he longs to hear it once more to refresh his soul.’

Robert Walser. The Metropolitan Street (1910) in Berlin Stories.

‘Alone he watched the sky go out, dark deepen to its full. He kept his eyes on the engulfed horizon, for he knew from experience what last throes it was capable of. And in the dark he could hear better too, he could hear the sounds the long day had kept from him, human murmurs for example, and the rain on the water.’

Samuel Beckett.  Mercier and Camier.