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They do it because they can.
One of them says, “Why did they do it, Nina and Darrell?” And the other answers, “Because they could.” That is the only answer there ever is.
These things are one thing. They are the inevitable result of all that went before. The power seeks its outlet. These things have happened before; they will happen again. These things are always happening.
the dust is parched, the soil longs for soaking, teeming dark water. For the earth is filled with violence, and every living thing has lost its way.
world is trying to go back to its former shape. Everything we’ve done is not enough.
It has been a long time since he’s felt comfort in a night walk.
five thousand years where the only thing that matters is: can you hurt more, can you do more damage, can you instill fear?”
If I don’t do it, they will.”
This line justifies a lot of things
It was her touch she felt every time Mr. Montgomery-Taylor laid himself upon her. She cuppeth the power in her hand. She commandeth it to strike.
Children are born so small. It does not matter if they are boys or girls. They are all born so weak and so powerless.
Your whole question is the mistake. Who’s the serpent and who’s the Holy Mother? Who’s bad and who’s good? Who persuaded the other one to eat the apple? Who has the power and who’s powerless? All of these questions are the wrong question.
There is a voice in Margot’s head. It says: You can’t get there from here. She sees it all in that instant, the shape of the tree of power. Root to tip, branching and re-branching. Of course, the old tree still stands. There is only one way, and that is to blast it entirely to pieces.
They have another drink before they go down.
A human being is made not by our own will but by that same organic, inconceivable, unpredictable, uncontrollable process that drives the unfurling leaves in season and the tiny twigs to bud and the roots to spread in tangled complications.
I feel instinctively—and I hope you do, too—that a world run by men would be more kind, more gentle, more loving and naturally nurturing.
How much “what it means to be a woman” is bound up with strength and not feeling fear or pain.
Gender is a shell game. What is a man? Whatever a woman isn’t. What is a woman? Whatever a man is not. Tap on it and it’s hollow. Look under the shells: it’s not there.
