To make a career of rescuing people is also to create a permanent class in need of rescue.
Io ho bisogno che qualcuno abbia bisogno di me, ecco cosa. Ho bisogno di qualcuno per cui essere indispensabile. Di una persona che si divori tutto il mio tempo libero, il mio ego, la mia attenzione. Qualcuno che dipenda da me. Una dipendenza reciproca.
Withered funeral flowers hanging from the bronze vase attached to each crypt, dripping stinky water on the marble floor and furry with mold, it’s too easy to imagine what’s happening to the beloved sealed inside.
To call this a social experiment was incorrect. It would never be allowed to fail.
Suicide Is the Ultimate Act of Consumption.
I felt like destroying something beautiful.
I am Jack’s wasted life.
People in France have a phrase: “Spirit of the Stairway.” In French, Esprit d’Escalier. It means that moment when you find the answer but it’s too late. Say you’re at a party and someone insults you. You have to say something. So, under pressure, with everybody watching, you say something lame. But the moment you leave the party...
The weakest people alive will try to glorify themselves by tearing down the truly amazing strength of the dead.
Our fathers were our models for God, if our fathers bailed, what does that tell you about God?
Some stories, Mr. Whittier would say, you tell them and you use them up. Other stories, they use you up.
We always do this, Mr. Whittier says. For the same reason our children’s children’s children’s children will always have war and famine and disease. Because we love our pain. We love our drama. But we will never, ever admit it.
You have to consider the possibility that God does not like you, never wanted you, in all probability he hates you. It’s not the worst thing that could happen.
A new car built by my company leaves somewhere traveling at 60 mph. The rear differential locks up. The car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside. Now, should we initiate a recall? Take the number of vehicles in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don’t do one.
Every time the plane banked sharply on takeoff or landing, I prayed for a crash, or mid air collision, anything. Life insurance pays triple when you die on a business trip.
Like splicing single frames of pornography into family films.
The three ways to make napalm: One, you can mix equal parts of gasoline and frozen orange juice concentrate. Two, you can mix equal parts of gasoline and diet cola. Three, you can dissolve crumbled cat litter in gasoline until the mixture is thick.
Crying is right at hand in the smothering dark, closed inside someone else, when you see how everything you can ever accomplish will end up as trash. Anything you’re ever proud of will be thrown away. And I’m lost inside. This is as close as I’ve been to sleeping in almost a week.
If you’re not on your way to becoming a veterinarian in six weeks, you will be dead.
Eventually, when I stepped back inside the parlor door, only my nana’s body was left on the sofa. The best of her – her laugh, her stories, even her coughing – was gone.