"There are two types of people in this world. People who hate clowns...and clowns. (Bobby Pendragon)"
— D.J. MacHale (The Quillan Games)

"I hate clowns. I've mentioned that, right?"
— D.J. MacHale, Bobby Pendragon (The Quillan Games)

"I hate clowns. You can't see what they're thinking."
— Geraldine McCaughrean (Peter Pan in Scarlet)

"YOU'RE GONNA DIE, CLOWN!"
— Adam Sandler

"Can you see me now?
Can you see me now?

All this weeping in the air
Who can tell where it will fall?
Through floating forests in the air
Cross the rolling open sea

Blow a kiss, I run through air
Leave the past, find nowhere
Floating forests in the air
Clowns all around you

Clowns that only let you know
Where you let your senses go
Clowns all around you
It's a cross I need to bear

All this black and cruel despair
This is an emergency
Don't you hide your eyes from me?
Open them and see me now

Can you see me now?
Can you see me now?

Can you see?
Can you see?

See me here in the air
Not holding on to anywhere
But holding on so beware
I have secrets I won't share

See me here pushing you
If I then deny I do
Contemplate or wish away
If I ask you not to stay

Clowns that only let you know
Where you let your senses go
Clowns all around you
It's a cross I need to bear

All this black and cruel despair
This is an emergency
Don't you hide your eyes from me?
Open them and see me now

Can you see me now?
Can you see me now?

"
— T.A.T.U

""Did I tell you about Anton?" Loots said.

"Anton?" I shook my head.

It was a week ago, Loots said. There had been a knock on the door of his apartment and when he opened it his old friend Anton was standing there. Anton was a clown. He belonged to a circus that toured the provinces, playing to small towns and villages. They talked about the old days for a while, but Anton became increasingly restless and distracted. In the end Loots had to ask him if there was something wrong.

"This is going to sound strange." The clown coughed nervously into his fist. "It's The Invisible Man. He's disappeared."

Loots stared at his friend.

"He just vanished," Anton said, "into thin air."

"The Invisible Man?" Loots said.

"Yes."

"He's disappeared?"

"I told you it would sound strange," Anton said."
— Rupert Thomson (The Insult)