#unexploded

"Why, she wondered, do we seem unable to speak of the things that matter most"

"I work on the assumption that there is a secret chemistry in all art; in this case, a reaction between the pigments, the plaster, the temperature, even the spirit of the building. I tell myself that the colour in a fresco is dependent upon the most minute of things; that it is catalyzed by the light of the first onlooker's gaze, by the carbon of their breath, by the speed or calm of their hearts."

"Desire for almost anything was leaching away. These days, her plans and hopes seemed only to point towards her own foolishness. Better to forget. Better not to want."

"Who had allowed life to turn to such chaos? How had everything run rampantly to war when no one was looking?"

‌"Death, even when one has grown bored waiting for it, is a bewilderment. A terrible punchline."

"There must be another life, here and now. This is too short, too broken. We know nothing, even about ourselves."

‌"How to cease to feel? That was the trick of living."