37 Quotes by Victor Robert Lee

Beijing? Freedom? Oil and water.

She was like him, trying to embrace the moon while making her way in the world through instinct and drive that came only from within, because she had only herself.

And yet Xiao Li always spoke of her mother as if her image were mounted in a red-and-gold picture frame resting on a shrine in the corner of a tidy house, to be venerated and pleased at all times, like a deceased ancestor ever-present and scrutinizing her progeny.

A kite only flies if it’s tethered.

To Cono’s mind the three assailants were all three nearly motionless even as they skittered and dodged, firing, maneuvering for a kill. Cono felt exhilaration—the ecstatic awareness that his strange brain and body had ordained him for just such moments, by allowing him to enter a space outside of time.

No person is just one person. Everyone is a crate of fruits, a crate of mixed fruits. The apple in there may have worms, a peach may be mildewed, a banana may be too green, a pear may be in perfect ripeness, and a melon may have the sweetest smell.

After all, the whole of humanity was anchored by inventions, contrivances, unrealities. Xiao Li lived on dreams, as most people do.

Hungry for what? Money? No. Power? Over people? That was like having power over clams.

It’s only a cut, a reminder of this day. A reminder to ask every day, Why am I doing this?