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They were like two strangers searching desperately for a subject in common; it seemed like they were talking about something and were together, but they knew that really they were talking about nothing and were alone.
even if only to justify her decisions, which were always lightly shaded by doubt.
He always imagined the worst; he was more or less an expert in dreaming up horrible scenarios, in part because he felt like by anticipating pain he avoided it.
And all three could distinguish perfectly well when the others were talking to themselves, and there weren’t any misunderstandings, it wasn’t even necessary for anyone to clarify that they were talking to themselves. And maybe that’s what people mean when they talk about happy families.
People say that’s what happiness is—when you don’t feel like you should be somewhere else, or someone else. A different person. Someone younger, older. Someone better. It’s a perfect and impossible idea, but still, during all those years, Carla generally wanted to be exactly where she was. Gonzalo too. And Vicente too; Vicente especially wanted to be exactly where he was, except on the weekends he spent with his father, when he missed his room, his house, his family.
“Nature is wise,”
“A lot of people say that poetry is useless.” “They’re afraid of useless things. Everything has to have a purpose. They hate pure creation, they’re in love with corporations. They’re afraid of solitude. They don’t know how to be alone.”
the constant sensation of play, the possibility of launching into a song or a joke at any moment, the overwhelming joy of being important to someone.
future; that bold assurance, that blind and audacious wager on a future that is compatible with the present.
Nothing to lose by living, try it: here’s a body just your size. We made it in the dark out of love for the art of the flesh but also in earnest, thinking of your visit as a new game, joyful and painful; out of love of life, out of fear of death and of life, out of love of death for you or for no one.
words can wound, throb, cure, console, resonate, remain.
keeps talking and repeats a few things, trying to reformulate them, to find another emphasis and other turns of phrase that are even more accurate, more convincing and honest—wordings that may or may not exist.
