Status Updates From Amsterdam Stories

“‘mon âme prend son élan vers l’infini,’ said the devil with an ironic smile, the way he had smiled for all eternity.”

“and so we and the world took turns flowing into and through each other: bekker said he could feel his heart swell and when i shut my eyes tight it was as though my head was filled with golden light and blue water, and wonderful shivers ran up and down my spine. i felt the world that lay around me.”

“but even if i could have flown off the top of the tower into that distance, i would have found only that the distance had turned into the nearby, and my heart would have gone out to the distance once more. and what good did it do me—the wisdom that taught me that nothing would ever change, it would be like this forever?”

“we were on top of the world and the world was on top of us, weighing down heavily.”

“and we thought it was a shame to have to go to bed, people should be able to stay up forever. that was one of the things we’d change.”

“im not a poet and im not a nature-lover and im not an anarchist. i am, thank God, absolutely nothing.”

“we’re making good time’ bavink said, just to have something to say. ‘well,’ japi said. ‘time doesn’t mean much to me.’”