Silence For the Dead

by Simone St. James

Books were a means to an end, even novels; for the more a person knew, the less she could be taken in.

education, in my experience, was no match for doggedness.

If I wanted to learn something, I was capable of studying it in a book until I understood it, no matter how long it took.

wanting nothing but to sit and not think and not be ordered somewhere for a few blessed minutes,

something about my mother infuriated my father, no matter what she did.

men were as dangerous as snakes.

Sometimes putting yourself first was the only thing you could do.

But it would have been nice to have someone to rely on, just once in my life. It would have hurt a little less.

In order to win, you just have to know more than your opponent does.

“I don’t think you’re as coldhearted as you pretend.”

But I’d lived too long in the real world for that.