96 Quotes by Chloe Benjamin

I don't care about relevance. I care about family. There are things you do for the people who did them for you.

Perhaps home, like the moon, will follow wherever she goes.

In Simon’s voice, he heard the siren song of family – how it pulls you despite all sense; how it forces you to discard your convictions, your righteous selfhood, in favor of profound dependence.

Varya has had enough therapy to know that she's telling herself stories. She knows her faith--that rituals have power, that thoughts can change outcomes or ward off misfortune--is a magic trick: fiction, perhaps, but necessary for survival. And yet, and yet: Is it a story if you believe it?

He imagined a new God, one who nudged him when he was going the wrong way but never strong-armed him, one who advised but did not insist – one who guided him, like a father. A Father.

During the breaking of the glass, he imagined his life until now shattering, too: its ignorance and anguish, its great and petty losses.

...on the topics of death and immortality, Judaism has little to say. While other religions are concerned with dying, Jews are most concerned with living. The Torah focuses on olam ha-ze: "this world.

She'll tell herself that what she really wanted was not to live forever, but to stop worrying.'What if I change?' she asked the fortune teller, all those years ago, sure that knowledge could save her from bad luck and tragedy. 'Most people don't,' the woman said.

Varya takes the handkerchief and wipes her face, and when she emerges she thinks of what Luke said--'that I'll kill them accidentally'--and laughs until he joins in and she begins to cry again, because she understands exactly what he means.