Machines were of little interest to me, perhaps because on the frontal armor of each sat an inventor, inspired to semitransparency, who verbosely explained the structure and purpose of his handiwork. No one listened to the inventors, and it seems they talked to no one in particular.

A. & B. Strugatsky, Monday Begins on Saturday, story 3 -- the description of a travel into the "depicted future", a tangible reality consisting of various authors' "imaginings" of the future.

They always make some comment like "Luckily, my earplugs will protect me from the effect!" This is hilarious. First, you rarely see them putting in the earplugs or taking them out, much less getting run over by an ice cream truck they failed to hear. Secondly, I love how they make these comments to nobody in particular. It's like eating a bunch of Chinese food then remarking out loud "Luckily, my small intestine will extract the nutrients from that meal!"