What is death? What is this thing we all share? Rabbits, birds, horses, trees, everyone I love and everyone who loves me. Even stars die, and we know absolutely nothing of it.
To survive the frontier, you must learn to recognize those who won’t. And be weary of their doomed decisions. They are to be avoided at all costs, because their fear is tragedy’s closest cousin. And tragedy is contagious in this place.
There are few things that focus one solely on the present. Terror is one. Grief another. But nothing washes the world away like the lips of another. Seems an odd custom, strangers putting their mouths together and exploring each other with their tongues. When you think about it, kissing makes no sense at all.
The dress felt like a prison built just for me, choking me by the neck. Digging into my underarms. Flattening my breasts against my rib cage. It disguises everything that makes me a woman from the glare of jealous women and rapacious men. As if their lack of self-esteem or will power should be my only concern. I will never live in that world again where the weak would rather guilt the strong than become strong themselves. No, I will stay in this world. This world doesn’t care what the weak want. This world eats the weak.
The dirty hand of man can go unnoticed in the city. Because his dirty hand made the city. But in this place, where innocence is a mineral in the soil, the filth of our touch is an apocalypse.
I felt no fear. It simply became another race. We fear what we don’t know. I knew what would happen. I would win the race or I would be killed. There was comfort in the simplicity of it. Even though I could hear hooves getting closer, I felt no fear.
Death is everywhere. It follows us like a stray dog, waiting to devour us like scraps. The pain it causes is so acute, so complete…
You got lucky in that field. You got lucky on the street. Hope you got enough luck left for those coming with you.[to James]
You go looking for trouble, you gonna find it every time.[to Elsa]
There’s no such thing as freedom. Don’t let anyone tell you there is. There’s laws, there’s rules, there’s customs, responsibilities everywhere. The more people you cram together, the more rules there’ll be.[to Elsa]
The meanest thing you can do to yourself is hate somebody else.[to Elsa]
The best way to know if land is truly undiscovered is to seek words to describe it. When you can’t, you know it’s virgin land. Untouched by our dirty hands. To see it is to be silenced by it. Made speechless by its endless uniformity.
