46 quotes found
“Email is the scourge of our age,' said Silvia. 'Email and cancer.”
“My ability to make up lies on the spot chills me as much as it saves me.”
“I was on the sidewalk, buffering, wondering if it was okay to follow people in real life.”
“I began to cry but maintained my shouting through it, like a wind through sheets of rain.”
“No order, no pattern, just chaos. Lots of little universes separated by invisible screens . . .”
“Well, then, what's the plan now? You can't stay here forever.'My plan was indeed to stay there forever.”
“I went back to my room and spent all night contemplating whether it was possible in life not to be constantly let down. If it could ever be worth pinning your happiness to another person, when all ...”
“The sharp, superficial pain at being spoken to unkindly had obscured the deeper pain, which had not yet turned into something hard and heavy.”
“I became convinced that I was being watched.Because self was still leaking everywhere, a part of me began to think it was Mizuko rather than a stranger. I hoped that there might still be a reunion....”
“That night I dreamt about the roses laid at the wrong feetthe feet of the nurse. Each bit of the dream was like a hyperlink. I pressed on one, wanting answers, and it took me to another. I could ne...”
“It never ceased to amaze me how she just had the facts always, in her head. It occured to me that if, or when, she died, a whole load of facts, a body of knowledge, might disappear without a trace.”
“The whole time I hadn't slept with anyone at university had made it harder and harder to finally do it. Like spending too long on a very high diving board, until finally you have to exit ignominiou...”
“Have you ever tried to organise a threesome in real life?'I shook my head. I'd only encountered them in porn, but it seemed to happen without much admin, the same way all porn skipped out the granu...”
“She was convinced a word existed, a noun, that meant the loss of feelings for someone who was formerly loveda word for the act of falling out of love. I said I couldn't think of it. It wasn't in th...”
“Mizuko loved reading the dictionary. She liked it when there were multiple meanings for words and when opposite meanings could be contained.”
“Or maybe it was already too late; you only get one first love. She was mine, but I had not been hers. She was only going to look for some echo of it, and if I had made the right noises, that echo m...”
“Waking in the morning, I had to remember grief all over again. It was sunny, a white winter sun, and that made me sad.”
“From watching Silvia, I'd learned that one of the worst things about being ill is that most people find your suffering opaque. With this sadness it was different. I felt that I needed to nurture an...”
“I hope when this is done I'll be able to get back into my happy gardening vibe that was so healthy for me. I want to go back to my routine and my morning ritual with the compost, but it will probab...”
“A neon-pink 3 flickered and instantly disappeared again into the dark. The sight of it on my own device now made me sick. I held my finger down on the menu screen; each little app logo began to vib...”
“There was never one truth. Even the Higgs could still be used to prove opposing theories, its mass falling between them on a chart. Besides, I told myself, my breathing heavy, eyes widening until t...”
“Have you ever truly, keenly felt like you don't know who you are? Do you ever do something and think, Who is at the controls? Like some mad pilot has locked you out of the cockpit? I definitely do....”
“I saw her note the way I hovered over the various ethnicities on the form. First the 'white' box, then to the airspace over the 'black' box, a kind of momentary hesitation, a protest of stillness, ...”
“At first, sending the confession by real mail had felt like a genius device. I would not have to sit by my phone and watch for the signs that indicated it had been sent and seen. Slim but solid pap...”
