The bitterness of joy lies in the knowledge that it cannot last. Nor should joy last beyond a certain season, for, after that season, even joy would become merely habit.
I hate the way, once you start to know someone, care about them, their behavior can distress you, even when it’s unreasonable and not your fault, even if you were really trying to be careful, tactful.
We all have our dreams. May we find them, and God have mercy on us when we do.
The soul is a magician. Only living flesh hampers it.
It was the forest’s fault. Those two handsome woodcutters. An evil place, the forest, everyone knew it, full of temptations and imps…
Maidens who stay maidens turn into saints. Old women become sorceresses. Tough jobs, both of these.
I’m not very good at being alive. Sometimes I despair of ever mastering it, getting it right. When I’m old, perhaps.
The humble were the elect of God. Did not the priests teach so, in their gemmed, kingly robes, from their towering pulpits?
The kind of teacher who never learned anything herself. Or taught anything, except sarcasm or fear.
and their days make no story for they were good and joyful and without event
Israbel smiled once more. It was difficult to take your gaze away from her mouth – unless you looked into her eyes; and then you could only look at those… (“Israbel”)
Azhrarn the Beautiful,” said Chuz lovingly, “it is your beautiful madness I have come to see.
Standing by the frozen glass, he stared down at the icy, barely lit streets running towards the river Seine, the bell-clanging local church, then to the sky like black lead. (“Israbel”)
What is any of this to us? Time is endless and ours. Love and Death are only the games we play in it.
If they had said my writing wasn’t good enough, fair enough, that’s an opinion. But to say it’s too complex is to insult the intelligence of the so-called young.