Miranda’s Reviews > The Archive of Alternate Endings > Status Update

"What is story if not the safe harbor for our most disturbing imaginings? I learned early that the notion of what will come to pass haunts better. But, too, it is about the storyteller--who you choose to trust and why. From where comes your decision to believe the breath that leaves the mouth that tells."

"There are others like me, and because I know that speech is a code, we use it very carefully. I want to tell Gretel that I have known the inside of mouths and the curves of lower backs and the muscles of shoulders. I have known the skin that never meets the sun. I want to tell Gretel that I am not alone, and more than that I want to tell Gretel, neither is she."

"She is silent, and the pause is making me waver. Does speaking a feeling make it a fact? She told me once that language is opaque, a very elegant concealing. But I am starting to think it is a prism, and if I can maneuver it just right, the light will amplify and liberate the truth."

"Because I taught him how to weave a story, and because I know him better than he is ready to know himself, I see how the story will end. That he used a tense that designates the future means it will haunt better, more effectively. I once told him that strong stories link risk and desire. In some ways, he is my fault."

"The tale comes easy and I realize that in crafting this narrative, I am a manager of fear. It is not a secret that my character is tender, but in this moment I feel brave, as though my flesh is glass."

"A story, Gretel says, to pas the time. And so I begin a tale. It must be epic in size in order to last the days. It must in some ways not end, so that we can stretch it to fit our particular needs. Gretel says this is how the best stories are told, with enough space to make them say several things at once."

"I do not tell you that you have changed me infinitely, exponentially, that in this single evening you were every sketched figure I'd ever imagined would save me."

"His invention is for her, and all those who need a way to tell their stories. It is for every sister who once had a story that went unbelieved. When people ask him what he's invented, he tells them this: a device that will make the world listen."

"Soon her brother will ask her: Can you tell which is human-made and which is artificial? And she will think: What are words without a heart beating behind them?"

"You know, the programmer says, long ago a computer was not a machine but a person. Usually a woman. A woman who crunched numbers for long hours in huge rooms."