You shouldn't do that," said Laura. "You could set yourself on fire.

Time folds you in its arms and gives you one last kiss, and then it flattens you out and folds you up and tucks you away until it's time for you to become someone else's past time, and then time folds again.

We want to get there faster. Get where? Wherever we are not. But a human soul can only go as fast as a man can walk, they used to say. In that case, where are all the souls? Left behind. They wander here and there, slowly, dim lights flickering in the marshes at night, looking for us. But they're not nearly fast enough, not for us, we're way ahead of them, they'll never catch up. That's why we can go so fast: our souls don't weigh us down.

Sono una profuga del passato, e come altri profughi ricordo le usanze e le abitudini di vita che ho lasciato o sono stata costretta a lasciarmi alle spalle, tutto sembra così strano, da qui, che ne sono ossessionata.

How did she end up in this madhouse? By putting one foot in front of the other and never taking her eyes off her feet. You could end up anywhere that way.

But how else can we live, these days, except in the midst of ruin?

I do have a life,' says Charis, blinking wet eyes.'You have a rich inner life,' says Tony firmly. 'More than most.

Bytelling you anything at all I’m at least believing in you, I believe you’re there, I believe youinto being. Because I’m telling you this story I will your existence. I tell, therefore you are.

But in life, a tragedy is not one long scream. It includes everything that led up to it. Hour after trivial hour, day after day, year after year, and then the sudden moment: the knife stab, the shell burst, the plummet of the car from a bridge.