Lily > Lily's Quotes

“She had the human look of a domesticated animal.”
― Agustina Bazterrica, Tender Is the Flesh

“Because hatred gives one strength to go on; it maintains the fragile structure, it weaves the threads together so that emptiness doesn’t take over everything.”
― Agustina Bazterrica, Tender Is the Flesh

“He tried to hate all of humanity for being so fragile and ephemeral but he couldn't keep it up because hating everyone is the same as hating no one.”
― Agustina Bazterrica, Cadáver exquisito

“I don't get why a person's smile is considered attractive. When someone smiles, they're showing their skeleton.”
― Agustina Bazterrica, Tender Is the Flesh

“Naming children after their parents is stripping them of an identity, reminding them who they belong to.”
― Agustina Bazterrica, Tender Is the Flesh

“After all, since the world began, we’ve been eating each other. If not symbolically, then we’ve been literally gorging on each other. The Transition has enabled us to be less hypocritical.”
― Agustina Bazterrica, Tender Is the Flesh

“Everyone says that he fell because he flew too close to the sun,” his father said, “but he flew, do you see what I mean, Son? He was able to fly. It doesn’t matter if you fall, if you were a bird for even just a few seconds.”
― Agustina Bazterrica, Tender Is the Flesh

“He tried to hate God but he doesn’t believe in God. He tried to hate all of humanity for being so fragile and ephemeral but he couldn’t keep it up because hating everyone is the same as hating no one.”
― Agustina Bazterrica, Tender Is the Flesh

“which god should she pray to if her god lets things like this happen.”
― Agustina Bazterrica, Tender Is the Flesh

“¿Cuántos corazones tienen que ser guardados en cajas para que el dolor se transforme en otra cosa? Pero el dolor, intuye, es lo único que lo hace seguir respirando. Sin la tristeza, no le queda nada.”
― Agustina Bazterrica, Tender Is the Flesh

“Porque el odio da fuerzas para seguir, mantiene la estructura frágil, entreteje los hilos para que el vacío no lo ocupe todo.”
― Agustina Bazterrica, Tender Is the Flesh

“How many hearts need to be stored in boxes for the pain to be transformed into something else? But the pain, he intuits, is the only thing that keeps him breathing. Without the sadness, he has nothing left.”
― Agustina Bazterrica, Tender Is the Flesh

“The human being is complex and I find the vile acts, contradictions, and sublimities characteristic of our condition astonishing. Our existence would be an exasperating shade of gray if we were all flawless.”
― Agustina Bazterrica, Tender Is the Flesh

“His brain warns him that there are words that cover up the world. There are words that are convenient, hygienic. Legal.”
― Agustina Bazterrica, Tender Is the Flesh

“He felt that a slaughterhouse should go unnoticed and blend in with the landscape, that it should never be called what it really is.”
― Agustina Bazterrica, Tender Is the Flesh

“Tenía la mirada humana del animal domesticado”.”
― Agustina Bazterrica, Cadáver exquisito

“There is something about her he'd like to break”
― Agustina Bazterrica, Tender Is the Flesh

“His father is a person of integrity, that’s why he went crazy.”
― Agustina Bazterrica, Tender Is the Flesh

“Does this pose a moral dilemma for you? Do you find it atrocious?” he asks. “Not at all. The human being is complex and I find the vile acts, contradictions, and sublimities characteristic of our condition astonishing. Our existence would be an exasperating shade of gray if we were all flawless.”
― Agustina Bazterrica, Tender Is the Flesh

“No one can call them humans because that would mean giving them an identity. They call them product, or meat, or food. Except for him; he would prefer not to have to call them by any name.”
― Agustina Bazterrica, Tender Is the Flesh

“Las palabras están ahí, encapsuladas. Se pudren, detrás de la locura.”
― Agustina Bazterrica, Cadáver exquisito

“Can't you see you're incapable of thinking for yourself? The only thing you do is follow the norms imposed on you. Can't you see that this whole thing is a superficial act? Are you even capable of feeling something, really feeling it? I mean, have you ever cared about Dad?”
― Agustina Bazterrica, Tender Is the Flesh

“Todos dicen que cayó porque voló demasiado cerca del sol, pero voló, ¿entendés, hijo? Pudo volar. No importa caer, si fuiste un pájaro al menos por unos segundos”.”
― Agustina Bazterrica, Cadáver exquisito

“There's a vibration, a subtle and fragile heat, that makes a living being particularily delicious. You're extracting life by the mouthful. It's the pleasure of knowing that because of your intent, your actions, this being has ceased to exist. It's the feeling of a complex and precious organism expitring little by little, and also becoming part of you. For always, I fine this miracle fascinating. This possibility of an indissoluble union.”
― Agustina Bazterrica, Tender Is the Flesh

“The words are there, encapsulated. They’re rotting behind the madness.”
― Agustina Bazterrica, Tender Is the Flesh

“They’re just seniors, people who have been alive for many years, and perhaps that’s their only achievement.”
― Agustina Bazterrica, Tender Is the Flesh

“What he was thinking was that he wished the coffin were less conspicuous; he knew it was white because of the purity of the child inside, but are we really that pure when we arrive in this world?”
― Agustina Bazterrica, Tender Is the Flesh

“He knows he can raise her, that it’s permitted. He’s aware there are people who do so, and who eat their domestic head alive, part by part. They say the meat tastes better, claim it’s really fresh. Tutorials are available that explain how, when, and where to make the cuts so the product doesn’t die early.”
― Agustina Bazterrica, Tender Is the Flesh

“Because hatred gives one strength to go on; it maintains the fragile structure, it weaves the threads together so that emptiness doesn’t take over everything. He wishes he could hate someone for the death of his son.”
― Agustina Bazterrica, Tender Is the Flesh

“I want to find a way of speaking to fellow human beings that will be cool rather than heated, philosophical rather than polemical, that will bring enlightenment rather than seeking to divide us into the righteous and the sinners, the saved and the damned, the sheep and the goats.”
― J.M. Coetzee, The Lives of Animals