Here you have no rain when all the earth cries for it, or quick downpours called cloud-bursts for violence. ~Mary Hunter Austin, “The Land of Little Rain,” 1903

How is it possible under such conditions for much vegetation to flourish?… All told there is hardly enough covering to hide the anatomy of the earth. ~John C. Van Dyke, The Desert, 1901

What makes the desert beautiful… is that somewhere it hides a well… ~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

Content can soothe, where e’er by fortune placed,Can rear a garden in a desert waste.~Henry Kirke White (1785–1806), “Clifton Grove”