“You know what people are doing on the other side of the world, what’s happening on another planet, but not what’s going on inside the person next to you.”

“But this bus was a bit too full. The driver only appeared to control the glass and metal around him. In reality, he was at the nose of a travelling paroxysm.”

“The emotion was the most important thing.”

“We just move on, don’t we, with traitors still amongst us? But there was one thought that wouldn’t go away. If I loved him, I would forgive him.”

“…he’d assumed their relationship would go on forever. It was going on now, but in another way, like the rearrangement of the stars, which were all still in the sky, just burning in unexpected places.”

“You know what people are doing on the other side of the world, what’s happening on another planet, but not what’s going on inside the person next to you.”

“Olga was better, in the sun, where he could see every pore in her skin. Get closer. Feel her next to him. It was all he wanted in the world. It was the last thing in the world that he could do.”

“The world is indeed a cold, hard stone.”

“We put our flags in soil when we arrive, as if it now belongs to us and we know where we are.”