Luke Dumas > Quotes

“With Colleen’s passing, something fractured inside of Simon. Something like a bone—a part of him that, even if it managed to heal, would always bear evidence of its imperfection. A tiny part of him that would always be broken.”
― Luke Dumas, The Paleontologist

“He had understood that, like the site of a nuclear tragedy, the place was uninhabitable for him now.”
― Luke Dumas, The Paleontologist

“Editor’s Note Exhibit F Further case notes prepared by Kathleen Prichard, mental health counselor at HMP Edinburgh. 17 October 2017 Today patient disclosed past mental health struggles, namely a three-year bout of what he calls “satanophobia,” i.e., extreme fear of the Devil coupled with persecutory delusions that the Devil is “after him,” visual hallucinations of winged creatures (“fiends”), feelings of hopelessness, and suicidal ideations. Multiple times patient mentioned having felt, at the onset of and throughout his condition, that there lay inside of him a kind of darkness, or evil, that attracted the Devil like a magnet. Patient could not describe this “darkness” further. Unclear what it could represent. Possible manifestation of some form of unconscious repression, perhaps as the result of patient’s religious upbringing? Will continue to explore in future sessions but will need to tread carefully.”
― Luke Dumas, A History of Fear

“Unlike the corporate world, which worshipped at the altar of profit and would slit any throat to keep shareholders happy, the nonprofit world traded in affinity, devotion. In family legacies that often went back generations.”
― Luke Dumas, The Paleontologist

“Hm?” Evie said. “What’s that?” “How one act of violence can impact so many. One moment of evil, or desperation. How even the simplest, most innocent act of survival—to eat, or defend oneself, or soothe one’s pain—makes waves. Ripples across the planet, and millions of years.”
― Luke Dumas, The Paleontologist

“He wondered if all this inequality discourse—important as it is, he hastened to add—had not the ability to reinforce divisions rather than erode them, to make enemies of good men and martyrs of unlikable women. Whatever happened to treating people how you wished to be treated?”
― Luke Dumas, The Paleontologist

“For anyone who has sought refuge in the prehistoric past in order to escape their present.”
― Luke Dumas, The Paleontologist