Angels Before Man Quotes

“This, this here, could be worship. ‘This—’ Lucifer pressed an innocent kiss to the prince’s sweet, divine mouth. This could be religion.”
― rafael nicolás, Angels Before Man

“In vain, I love you; in vain, the dawn streaming onto you, beside me; in vain, I want to be yours, your angel. Angel of love, angel of Michael.”
― rafael nicolás, Angels Before Man

“Haven’t you ever wondered why Father is so strict about our subservience? It’s because disobedience is creation,” a shivering breath, “create with me, Michael, and let’s call it sin.”
― rafael nicolás, Angels Before Man

“You're everything to me, the stars and the moons, the heat and the cold, the earth and the seeds, the waters and the flowers, but you are not God.”
― rafael nicolás, Angels Before Man

“Whispering — “I daydream of you, of loving you.”
“How do you love me?”
“Like this.” Yearning mouth — it’d press soft to the smooth of his tunic. “Like a flower, like a symphony, trapped in my throat, like you’re an eternity, and I need you in my veins.”
― rafael nicolás, Angels Before Man

“Kimah.’
‘I’ve filled libraries with all the things I wanted to say to you.’
‘I just want to go visit you. I haven’t in a while.’
‘I want to see if you sleepwalk, and if you might speak to me, tell me what you are dreaming about.”
― rafael nicolás, Angels Before Man

“There is another Eden, within me. I have it nestled between the heat of love. This is love.’
But when the sounds of heavy steps, approaching, came, they’d hastily rise. Gathering their clothes, taking each other’s hands, and laughing, they’d run away from Him, as fast they could. So that He doesn’t see, doesn’t notice. Two angels creating love, creating.”
― rafael nicolás, Angels Before Man

“I feel aged. I feel as if you’ve aged me with your own hands, Michael. Ripened me. Like a red fruit, at the edge of a branch, hanging at its peak. Beautiful — and just about to fall.”
― rafael nicolás, Angels Before Man

“But if I were like God, I’d create a new piece of me every day for you to kiss. I’d remake myself, chasing that mouth.”
― rafael nicolás, Angels Before Man

“Your beloved what, exactly? Beloved friend? Brother?”
“Simply my beloved.” Michael smiled back, grand but sleepy, before he swung up to sit again. He scooted even closer to Lucifer, chuckling warm, perhaps at the confusion on the other’s irises and brows and mouth. “My beloved Lucifer.”
― rafael nicolás, Angels Before Man

“I waited for your touch to save me.”
― rafael nicolás, Angels Before Man

“You do not desire me.’ A pleased smile on Lucifer’s lips, as he lifted a tender gaze to his beloved, stern archangel’s face. ‘Because you know I am already yours.”
― rafael nicolás, Angels Before Man

“Bend me over the Throne and desecrate it with me.”
― rafael nicolás, Angels Before Man

“Complete, He said, but I don’t want to be complete; I’d rather be split and become full with you.’ He’d part his legs. ‘Split me, here.”
― rafael nicolás, Angels Before Man

“He gazed at his muscles, again, thinking a bit about how God had created Michael, lovingly carved the details — the dips by his smile, every eyelash, each curve of his knuckles, a dark freckle at his hip. Creation as an act of love.”
― rafael nicolás, Angels Before Man

“Is Father good because He is good, or because He says He is good?”
― rafael nicolás, Angels Before Man

“But what does it mean for a body to be perfect? Perfect for what? What does it mean for beauty to be perfect? Because there are different beauties — I’ve seen how daisies are pretty in a way roses quite aren’t. What am I for, Father? In what way am I perfectly made, for what purpose?’ To be something so abstract as beauty — it was as if Lucifer weren’t more than an abstraction himself, an idea, a fantasy, the figment of a lonely, longing imagination.”
― rafael nicolás, Angels Before Man

“How terribly lonely that must be, to be so beautiful that others think of you a thorn.”
― Rafael Nicolás, Angels Before Man

“It made Lucifer miserably desire him, his touch, his kisses into his hair.”
― rafael nicolás, Angels Before Man

“One time, you were half sprawled on top of me, your head on my chest. You were heavy, I let you crush me. You said you’d never slept better. I don’t know if I slept — if maybe your smile was no more than a sweet dream.”
― rafael nicolás, Angels Before Man

“Like a flower, like a symphony, trapped in my throat, like you’re an eternity, and I need you in my veins.”
― Rafael Nicolás, Angels Before Man

“A long time ago, I collected the flower petals stained with my first blood; I thought there was something significant about that, there was importance in all the little moments of experience, because when you live forever, the first times matter. The first time you bleed, first time you cry — I don’t remember that — first time you see your wings, because new things defile you, purity chips away. your purity. nestled flowers in your belly, waiting to be picked. do you want innocence back? small and young smiles that make your eyes squint and cheeks flare the feeling of your face dripping down onto the grass, the painted walls you tore down, the roads you chipped away, they’ll eat away at you, the lingering feelings of a warm hand on your waist, the taps of your feet as you dance, the
beats of your timbrel.’ ‘and now you are like Gods, sparkling brilliant with jewelry that worships you, and you’re splitting in order to create.’ ‘The tosses of your wet hair, the rushes of chariots speeding past, the holy, holy, holy lord god of hosts, the sweetness of a strawberry, knocks against the window by your head, the little tunes of your pipes, the cuts sliced into your fingers by uptight cacti fruits, the brisk scent of a sea crashing into the rocks, the sweat of wrestling, onions, cumin, parsley in a metal jug, mud clinging to your skin, a friendly mouth on your cheeks and forehead, chimes, chirps of chatter in the bazaar, amen, amen, amen, the plump fish rushing to take the bread you toss, scraping of a carpenter, the hiss of chalk, the wisps of clouds cradling you as you nap, the splashes of water in a hot pool, the picnic in a meadow, the pounding of feet that are chasing you, the velvet of petals rustling you awake, a giant water lily beneath you, the innocent kiss, the sprawl of the universe reflected in your eyes for the first time, the bloody wings that shred out of your back, the apples in orchards, a basket of stained flowers, excited chants of a colosseum audience, the heat of spinning and bouncing to drums and claps, the love braided into your hair, the trickles of a piano, smell of myrrh, the scratches of a spoon in a cup, the coarseness of a carpet, the stringed instruments and trumpets, the serene smile of not knowing, the sleeping angel, the delight of a creator, the amusement of gossip and rumors, the rumbling laughter between shy singing, the tangling of legs, squash, celery, carrot, and chayote, the swirled face paint, the warmth of honey in your tea, the timid face in the mirror, mahogany beams, the embrace of a bed of flowers, the taste of a grape as its fed to you, the lip smacks of an angel as you feed him a raspberry, the first dizziness of alcohol, the cool water and scent of natron and the scratch of the rock you beat your dirty clothes against, the strain of your arms, the columns of an entrance, the high ceilings of a dark cathedral, the boiling surface of bubbling stew, the burn of stained-glass, the little joyous jump you do seeing bread rise, the silky taste of olive oil, the lap of an angel humming as he embroiders a little fox into his tunic, the softness of browned feathers lulling you to sleep, the weight of a dozen blankets and pillows on your small bed, the proud smile on the other side of a window in a newly-finished building, the myrtle trees only you two know about, the palm of god as he fashions you from threads of copper, his praises, his love, his kiss to your hair, your father.”
― rafael nicolás, Angels Before Man

“And for Lucifer, who had now met death, it seemed paradise was not, thus, absence of pain, but promise of mending.”
― Rafael Nicolás, Angels Before Man

“Is Father good because He is good or because He says He is good?”
― Rafael Nicolás, Angels Before Man

“Bloodthirsty — Lucifer had never heard a word like this; he picked it apart literally, thinking of filling a wine glass with blood and sipping. Would it drunken him, too?”
― Rafael Nicolás, Angels Before Man

“they’d run away from Him, as fast they could. So that He doesn’t see, doesn’t notice. Two angels creating love, creating.”
― rafael nicolás, Angels Before Man

“Even if I miss you living here. Even if I miss you. Before Lucifer, it was always just you and me, us.”
― rafael nicolás, Angels Before Man

“I know what the Lord dressed me in and what He handed to me, and inside, I can feel the detail He put into me.
And yet, still, I’m so lost. I only want to be useful to Him, but I don’t know how. I want to know what He made
me for, so that I can fulfill my role and uphold His splendor, but I don’t know how. It’s devastating to me.”
― rafael nicolás, Angels Before Man

“And they loved him.”
― rafael nicolás, Angels Before Man

“Here, you’re like the pistil of a flower.’ Fingers searching, exploring — ‘petals, here.”
― rafael nicolás, Angels Before Man