Of That Other Country We Now Speak and Other Stories Quotes

“In the land of my girlhood, there were many kites. There was one for each of us. We flew them to our heart’s delight. We flew them till they bound our feet, till they bound our hearts with kite strings. The kites are forever tethered to our hearts though we can no longer see them. Wherever we go, they remain in our sky. No knife, no scissors can ever sever our hearts from our kites.”
― Charlson Ong, Of That Other Country We Now Speak and Other Stories

“As a child, she often willed her skin to become paper-yellow, red, green-and her tiny bones to become sticks. She had yearned for a strong, crafty hand to weld her into a butterfly kite and to set her free.”
― Charlson Ong, Of That Other Country We Now Speak and Other Stories

“And that was how we flew into the vast blue, into the exploding sun, looking for a heart-shaped island circled by a massive dragon, where an Electric Woman opened glass boxes to turn back the hands of time.”
― Charlson Ong, Of That Other Country We Now Speak and Other Stories

“I tell no lies. Lies are the devil's nightsongs. The devil sees all. He sits in a corner chewing on the marrow of aborted fetuses. I can smell him at night, the odor of burnt carcasses and manure. When he breathes heavily, when he is in fear, black smoke rises from his crown which makes you retch blood. He leaves behind marks of his hoofs and claws, soot from hell that no amount of washing can clean. Although sometimes they appear as an infant's footprints which make you so happy.”
― Charlson Ong, Of That Other Country We Now Speak and Other Stories