Jeremiah

“if Moses had seen the way my friend’s face blushes when he’s drunk, and his beautiful curls and wonderful hands, he would not have written in his Torah: do not lie with a man”
― Judah Alharizi, The Book of Tahkemoni: Jewish Tales from Medieval Spain

“Therefore, dear Sir, love your solitude and try to sing out with the pain it causes you. For those who are near you are far away... and this shows that the space around you is beginning to grow vast.... be happy about your growth, in which of course you can't take anyone with you, and be gentle with those who stay behind; be confident and calm in front of them and don't torment them with your doubts and don't frighten them with your faith or joy, which they wouldn't be able to comprehend. Seek out some simple and true feeling of what you have in common with them, which doesn't necessarily have to alter when you yourself change again and again; when you see them, love life in a form that is not your own and be indulgent toward those who are growing old, who are afraid of the aloneness that you trust.... and don't expect any understanding; but believe in a love that is being stored up for you like an inheritance, and have faith that in this love there is a strength and a blessing so large that you can travel as far as you wish without having to step outside it.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

“Tell me how you could say such a thing, she said, staring down at the ground beneath her feet. You're not telling me anything I don't know already. 'Relax your body, and the rest of you will lighten up.' What's the point of saying that to me? If I relaxed my body now, I'd fall apart. I've always lived like this, and it's the only way I know how to go on living. If I relaxed for a second, I'd never find my way back. I'd go to pieces, and the pieces would be blown away. Why can't you see that? How can you talk about watching over me if you can't see that?”
― Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

“JESUS: Judas! … Judas, don’t you know what would happen the very instant you got down on your knees?
JUDAS: Why on my knees? They shoulda buried me standing up—’cuz I been on my knees my whole life! You left me.

JUDAS is slowly reverting to his frozen catatonic state.

JESUS: I’m right here.
JUDAS: I would have never believed that you could have left me.
JESUS: I never left you.
JUDAS: That you didn’t love me.
JESUS: I do love you.
JUDAS: Why … didn’t you make me good enough … so that you could’ve loved me?
JESUS: … Please take my hands, Judas. Please.
JUDAS: Where are they?
JESUS: Right here.
JUDAS: I can’t see them.
JESUS: They’re right here.
JUDAS: Where are you going?!
JESUS: I’m right here.
JUDAS: Don’t leave me!
JESUS: I’m here.
JUDAS: I can’t hurt …
JESUS: I love you, Judas.
JUDAS: I can’t …
JESUS: Please stay.
JUDAS: I can’t hurt …
JESUS: Please love me, Judas.
JUDAS: I can’t.

JUDAS is frozen again.”
― Stephen Adly Guirgis, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot