My Absolute Darling

by Gabriel Tallent

She thinks, you are bound to make mistakes, and if you are unwilling to make mistakes, you will forever be held hostage at the beginning of a thing, you have to stop being afraid, Turtle. You have to get in the practice of being swift and deliberate, or one day, hesitation will fuck you.

“Don’t ever think the name is the thing, because there is only the thing itself, and the names are just tricks, just tricks to help you remember them.”

“Don’t think about it. If you think about it, you kill it. Pay attention, but don’t think about it, put your brain in your lunch box and just go to work, there’s a part of you that knows how to do this, and you have to let that part do it.”