The Book of Form and Emptiness

by Ruth Ozeki

Stories are life lived backward.

If skin marks the border where an I ends and a you begins, then that night they did all they could to cross it.

Spin the moon, and see where we land, and hope you can live with the outcome.

Why did you revere us so? Because you thought we had the power to save you from meaninglessness, from oblivion and even from death, and for a while, we books believed we could save you, too.

Without problems, there would be no poems.”

“Music is like outer space, Benny. No need for flying to some other place. Everything is so beautiful right here.”

“You can’t hold on to time,”