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The Dead of a Lifetime.
people are standing in silent lines with their eyes half-open and their minds half-closed,
‘Never trust people who don’t have something in their lives that they love beyond all reason.’
They say Im to little to play. Become good player any way!
‘The only time I’m not moving forwards is when I’m taking aim.’
We become what we are told we are. Ana has always been told that she’s wrong.
A simple truth, repeated as often as it is ignored, is that if you tell a child it can do absolutely anything, or that it can’t do anything at all, you will in all likelihood be proven right.
they don’t want a modern Beartown, because they know that a modern Beartown won’t want them.
‘The only thing the sport gives us are moments. But what the hell is life, Peter, apart from moments?’
Being a parent makes you feel like a blanket that’s always too small. No matter how hard you try to cover everyone, there’s always someone who’s freezing.
Deep down she could also do with winning at something.
all the barriers without them making any attempt to escape. Any living thing that is kept behind bars for long enough eventually becomes more scared of the unknown than its own captivity.
People say she’s gone mad, because that’s what people who know nothing about loneliness call it.
He wakes up in the mornings with the feeling that someone has stolen a better life from him,
Bitterness can be corrosive; it can rewrite your memories as if it were scrubbing a crime scene clean, until in the end you only remember what suits you of its causes.
‘How can anyone possibly experience this without thinking he’s a god?’
For the perpetrator, rape lasts just a matter of minutes. For the victim, it never stops.
Humanity has many shortcomings, but none is stronger than pride.
Amat will never be able to explain his reasons. Jealousy, maybe. Pride, probably. An inferiority complex, possibly. Infatuation, definitely.
There are thousands of ways to die in Beartown. Especially on the inside.
In a few years’ time she’ll read an old newspaper article about research showing that the part of the brain that registers physical pain is the same part that registers jealousy. And then Ana will understand why she hurt so badly.
‘That most people don’t do what we tell them to. They do what we let them get away with.’
They laugh. How powerful that is, the fact that they can still make each other do that.
‘That’s how wars start. One side protects itself, so the other side has to protect itself even more, and then we start swapping our own fear with their threats. And then we start firing at each other.’
‘When I was little, my dad used to hit me if I spilled my milk, Leo. That didn’t teach me not to spill things. It just made me scared of milk. Remember that.’
Another morning comes. It always does. Time always moves at the same rate, only feelings have different speeds. Every day can mark a whole lifetime or a single heartbeat, depending on who you spend it with.
