She is a wiry blanched creature with no beauty. Her expression reminds him of a crumpled letter – there is both sadness and anger in it.
He likes to think of himself as someone who can give quick clever answers to awkward questions. It is an important part of his self-esteem.
Felix has always believed that if there is one thing in life that is fated it is our birth, that far-fetched conspiracy of circumstances which have to occur in order for us to get born.
One consequence of ignorance is that it misdirects anger.
To tell a lie is to risk being caught out and there’s excitement in avoiding traps: it was an aspect of my childhood I was perhaps averse to relinquishing.
The act of creation, the impetus to undertake it, is always some kind of feeble attempt to understand one’s own creation, the nature of creation itself.
The temptation to betray a secret, always breathing its hot breath in your ear.
Power needs plots because plots are secret until they unfold and the most gratifying kind of power is holding onto an explosive secret.
If you’re not going to feel how are you going to know what to think? Isn’t it in the nature of feeling to evolve thought?
It’s in our dreams that we pull people towards us.
At that moment the ghost dance seems to Zinnia like the relationship of two people who never quite consummate the love they feel for each other.
Every night I build a fire for you, Alowa. Every night I dance on the rooftop for you. Look at the flames, Alowa. Aren’t they beautiful? Look at the smoke. I’m dancing in the smoke, Alowa.
And who isn’t less innocent than they lead us to believe? That’s one of the fundamental truths about human nature.