The Town of Babylon Quotes

“In high school, I was a popular kid, but it was a tireless campaign on my part. Always striving to be in the right place, to make people laugh, to be a good dancer, to throw the best parties, to drink more, to smoke everything being passed around, to drop acid, to befriend the beautiful girls so that I might be mistaken for a ladies’ man, to keep my grades up, to say yes to everyone, always. I don’t know if I was aware of how hard I was trying, but somewhere in me, I sensed that if I ever stopped performing, even for a moment, the audience would leave; so, in a way, I left first. It never occurred to me that they’d remained in their seats.”
― Alejandro Varela, The Town of Babylon

“Then again, a colleague of mine researches the ability of humans to carve out exceptions from entire populations. This is how he explains the anti-Black racists who voted for Obama. Apparently people are capable of turning their racism on and off; they just haven’t figured out how to make “off” the default.”
― Alejandro Varela, The Town of Babylon