Aaron Bartles

“The way of the world is to bloom and to flower and die but in the affairs of men there is no waning and the noon of his expression signals the onset of night. His spirit is exhausted at the peak of its achievement. His meridian is at once his darkening and the evening of his day.”
― Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West

“Try to learn to let what is unfair teach you.”
― David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest

“It was written I should be loyal to the nightmare of my choice.”
― Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

“The seconds pass. I know what’s going on because it’s the same thing that always happens: give me something nice, something I love or want or need, and I’ll find a way to grind it into dust.”
― Jennifer Egan, The Keep