Where Reasons End

by Yiyun Li

What if life could be saved by clichés? What if life must be lived by clichés? Somewhere tomorrow and somewhere yesterday—never somewhere today but cliché-land.

To love is to trespass.

What’s wrong, I thought, with acting slow and dull if that makes people look away, or even, if they look, they can’t see me, or only see me as a hapless bear with very little brain? What’s wrong with being sharp and bright? Nikolai said. The world never tires of dimming the bright and blunting the sharp, I said. It’s good to avoid suffering when one can.