michele ✡︎

“they asked "do you love her to death?"

i said "speak of her over my grave and watch how she brings me back to life”
― Mahmoud Darwish

“My name, dear saint, is hateful to myself,” he said. “Because it is an enemy to thee.”

The balcony scene. Too mistrustful to guess at the meaning, I said, “Don’t do that, James, please—right now can we just be ourselves?”

He crouched down, lifted the mangled script from the floor. “I’m sorry,” he said. “It’s easier now to be Romeo, or Macbeth, or Brutus, or Edmund. Someone else.”
― M.L. Rio, If We Were Villains

“Tomorrow, if he tries anything, instead of assassination we give him a righteous ass-kicking.” “Here is my hand,” James said, after a split second’s hesitation. “The deed is worthy doing.” I hesitated also, a split second longer. “And so say I.”
― M.L. Rio, If We Were Villains

“But in Shakespeare's world, passion is irresistible, not embarrassing.”
― M.L. Rio, If We Were Villains