Aurora > Aurora's Quotes

“This is the one thing I hope: that she never stopped. I hope when her body couldn’t run any farther she left it behind like everything else that tried to hold her down, she floored the pedal and she went like wildfire, streamed down night freeways with both hands off the wheel and her head back screaming to the sky like a lynx, white lines and green lights whipping away into the dark, her tires inches off the ground and freedom crashing up her spine. I hope every second she could have had came flooding through that cottage like speed wind: ribbons and sea spray, a wedding ring and Chad’s mother crying, sun-wrinkles and gallops through wild red brush, a baby’s first tooth and its shoulder blades like tiny wings in Amsterdam Toronto Dubai; hawthorn flowers spinning through summer air, Daniel’s hair turning gray under high ceilings and candle flames and the sweet cadences of Abby’s singing. Time works so hard for us, Daniel told me once. I hope those last few minutes worked like hell for her. I hope in that half hour she lived all her million lives.”
― Tana French, The Likeness

“I am already out at sea. Floating in the water while gazing back at the innocent girl on dry sand who believes that she will never get wet.
It won't be long. Any second now the wave will arrive to wash around her feet and strike terror into her heart. Then she will know. She will understand that a woman's place is in the sea. Where the acts of floundering, drowning and gulping mouthfuls of salty water while struggling to swim against the current are the true essence of our sex.”
― Riku Onda, Fish Swimming in Dappled Sunlight

“No matter what everyone else said, she wanted to believe the missing child was hers. She wanted to believe the reason her child hadn't come home in over a year was because she took such small steps. If she were to come home at that pace, they would have to wait much, much longer. No matter what everyone said, this is what she wanted to believe.”
― Ha Seong-nan, Bluebeard's First Wife

“My sisters. My blood. My skin. What a gruesome bond we shared.”
― Krystal Sutherland, House of Hollow

“Why are you so beautiful, do you think? So hungry? So able to bend the wills of those around you? You are like the death flowers that grow rampant in your wake: lovely to look at, intoxicating even, but get too close and you will soon learn that there is something rank beneath. That’s what beauty often is, in nature. A warning. A disguise.”
― Krystal Sutherland, House of Hollow

“Can I take your coat?” Cupcake offers. I turn to her. She’s looking at me so hopefully. So willing to take a coat I’m not wearing, I almost want to give her my skin.”
― Mona Awad, Bunny

“What do you think, Samantha?” Fosco asks me. That it’s a piece of pretentious shit. That it says nothing, gives nothing. That I don’t understand it, that probably no one does and no one ever will. That not being understood is a privilege I can’t afford. That I can’t believe this woman got paid to come here. That I think she should apologize to trees. Spend a whole day on her knees in the forest, looking up at the trembling aspens and oaks and whatever other trees paper is made of with tears in her languid eyes and say, I’m fucking sorry. I’m sorry that I think I’m so goddamned interesting when it is clear that I am not interesting. Here’s what I am: I’m a boring tree murderess. But I look at Vignette, at Creepy Doll, at Cupcake, the Duchess. All of them staring at me now with shy smiles. “I think I’d like to see more of the soup too,” I hear myself say.”
― Mona Awad, Bunny

“In the jumbled, fragmented memories I carry from my childhood there are probably nearly as many dreams as images from waking life. I thought of one which might have been my earliest remembered nightmare. I was probably about four years old - I don't think I'd started school yet - when I woke up screaming. The image I retained of the dream, the thing which had frightened me so, was an ugly, clown-like doll made of soft red and cream-coloured rubber. When you squeezed it, bulbous eyes popped out on stalks and the mouth opened in a gaping scream. As I recall it now, it was disturbingly ugly, not really an appropriate toy for a very young child, but it had been mine when I was younger, at least until I'd bitten its nose off, at which point it had been taken away from me. At the time when I had the dream I hadn't seen it for a year or more - I don't think I consciously remembered it until its sudden looming appearance in a dream had frightened me awake.

When I told my mother about the dream, she was puzzled.

'But what's scary about that? You were never scared of that doll.'

I shook my head, meaning that the doll I'd owned - and barely remembered - had never scared me. 'But it was very scary,' I said, meaning that the reappearance of it in my dream had been terrifying.

My mother looked at me, baffled. 'But it's not scary,' she said gently. I'm sure she was trying to make me feel better, and thought this reasonable statement would help. She was absolutely amazed when it had the opposite result, and I burst into tears.

Of course she had no idea why, and of course I couldn't explain. Now I think - and of course I could be wrong - that what upset me was that I'd just realized that my mother and I were separate people. We didn't share the same dreams or nightmares. I was alone in the universe, like everybody else. In some confused way, that was what the doll had been telling me. Once it had loved me enough to let me eat its nose; now it would make me wake up screaming. ("My Death")”
― Lisa Tuttle, Best New Horror 16

“There are some mysteries in this world," Yukawa said suddenly, "that cannot be unraveled with modern science. However, as science develops, we will one day be able to understand them. The question is, is there a limit to what science can know? If so, what creates that limit?"

Kyohei looked at Yukawa. He couldn't figure out why the professor was telling him this, except he had a feeling it was very important.

Yukawa pointed a finger at Kyohei's forehead. "People do." he said. "People's brains, to be more precise. For example, in mathematics, when somebody discovers a new theorem, they may have other mathematicians verify it to see if it's correct. The problem is, the theorems getting discovered are becoming more and more complex. That limits the number of mathematicians who can properly verify them. What happens when someone comes up with a theorem so hard to understand that there isn't anyone else who can understand it? In order for that theorem to be accepted as fact, they have to wait until another genius comes along. That's the limit the human brain imposes on the progress of scientific knowledge. You understand?"

Kyohei nodded, still having no idea where he was going with this.

"Every problem has a solution," Yukawa said, staring straight at Kyohei through his glasses. "But there's no guarantee that the solution will be found immediately. The same holds true in our lives. We encounter several problems to which the solutions are not immediately apparent in life. There is value to be had in worrying about those problems when you get to them. But never feel rushed. Often, in order to find the answer, you need time to grow first. That's why we apply ourselves, and learn as we go."

Kyohei chewed on that for a moment, then his mouth opened a little and he looked up with sudden understanding.

"You have questions now, I know, and until you find your answers, I'll be working on those questions too, and worrying with you. So don't forget, you're never alone.”
― Keigo Higashino, A Midsummer's Equation

“As the tears gushed out of her, she felt herself shrinking down like a bar of soap, losing her original form. She had become a shapeless and authentic version of herself. This change, she knew, was going to be irrevocable”
― An Yu, Braised Pork

“To say that the mountain was this or that. To ascribe it physical or metaphysical characteristics. To describe it in a way that separated it from everything that was not it - these are all habits of the human mind, and so, it could justifiably be said that all and any such remarks described the describer more than Ghost Mountain. Ghost Mountain had no mind. It did not describe itself. It had no self or self-view. Ghost Mountain was Ghost Mountain.”
― Ronan Hession, Ghost Mountain

“Ghost Mountain impressed her. The feeling of Ghost Mountain impressed her. The idea of Ghost Mountain impressed her. She could see herself clearly on Ghost Mountain. Ordinarily, her mind was like a zorbing ball and it felt like she was trapped and bouncing around inside it. But on Ghost Mountain, she felt like her mind had no boundary. This impressed her also. But what impressed her the most was the way Ghost Mountain had appeared. Not that it had appeared suddenly. Not that it had appeared mysteriously. What impressed her most was that it had appeared and had no message.”
― Ronan Hession, Ghost Mountain

“He remembered the features of the land at all the different places. He thought back to the birds or the flowers or the trees that were native to those specific regions. And yet he had never thought of going back to pay a visit to any of them. Each of them was finished with, over, as if his memories had been abruptly cut off midway. The different locations failed to intersect with each other but lay separate and unconnected in the shadows of his mind. If your hometown is the place you think of when you come to a crossroads in your life, or when you find yourself in crisis, then Aose had none. All he had was the light.”
― Hideo Yokoyama, The North Light

“There were times when he had longed to return to that soft light. For some reason, all of the workers' prefab lodgings he had lived in had the same large windows on the north side. He had loved to read or draw in the light that came in through those windows. In was a soft, north light that neither burst in nor drenched them with its rays. That light from the north would almost apologetically enfold the room in gentle arms. It was different from the sharp brightness of the east window or the cheery sunniness of the south. The light from the north was quiet and serene, as if it had reached a state of enlightenment.”
― Hideo Yokoyama, The North Light

“A life surrounded by good people is a successful life. It might not be success as defined by society, but thanks to the people around you, each day is a successful day'.”
― Hwang Bo-reum, Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop

“I wish someone would appear and cut buttonholes in my shirt. Just to prove that I'm not a joke and I can fasten the second and the third buttons too. And while you're here, cut the holes for my friends too. Make enough holes for everyone, big holes that can fit even the biggest of buttons.”
― Hwang Bo-Reum, Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop

“I'm thirteen years old and growing fast. I have hair that drifts like seaweed when I swim. I have eyes that shine like rock pools. My ears are like scallop shells. The ripples on my skin are like the ripples on the sand when the tide has turned back again. At night I gleam and glow like the sea beneath the stars and moon. Thoughts dart and dance inside like little minnows in the shallows. They race and flash like mackerel further out. My wonderings roll in the deep like seals. Dreams dive each night into the dark like dolphins do, and break out happy and free into the morning light. These are the things I know about myself and that I see when I look in the rock pools at myself.”
― David Almond, Half a Creature from the Sea: A Life in Stories

“My body moves but I feel like I'm not part of it. What am I? Body, brain, soul, or all of these? Infant, boy, man, or all those things together? Or nothing, just nothing at all?”
― David Almond, Half a Creature from the Sea: A Life in Stories