Petrik

“It could be the greatest nation in the world, the most magnificent empire there ever existed. But if it could not keep its own children and fed, was it really something worth fighting to save?”
― Shen Tao, The Poet Empress

“It is easy to make fleeting footprints in the snow;
It is hard to make lasting marks in the stone.
Shall I dance ten thousand steps, unwitnessed?
Shall I make one carving, forever known?”
― Shen Tao, The Poet Empress

“Maybe some stories were like jarred butterflies, I thought, fluttering free as soon as someone broke the glass.”
― Shen Tao, The Poet Empress

“Surely no one else lived like this - burdened by the tiniest details they assumed had enormous consequences. Surely no one else was so anchored by anxiety. Other people could stumble and shake their heads and move on. How she envied their lightness.”
― R.F. Kuang, Katabasis