Utopia Avenue

by David Mitchell

“Music is vibrations in the air, only. Why do these vibrations create physical responses? It’s a mystery to me.”

Suffering is the promise that life always keeps.

“At your age,” says Mrs. Hughes, “you think getting old and dying’s what other people do. At my age, you think, Where did it all go? If you want to do something, do it. ’Cause your turn to be in that box, it’s coming. No doctor, no diet, no nothing’ll keep it away. It’ll be here. Quick as”—she snaps her fingers and Elf blinks—“that.”

“Less than eight is haste. More than eight is procrastination. Eight days is long enough for the world to shuffle the deck and deal you another hand.”

Syd’s words arrive late and fragmented, as if bounced off the moon.

The word ‘faster’ is becoming a synonym of ‘better.’ As if the goal of human evolution is to be a sentient bullet.”