Sarah

“When you're young, you think life is a string of choices. It's either you choose this door or the other door, or jump out of the window. You don't realise that most of what'll happen to you is because of other people's choices. There's a door already opened for you, so you walk straight through it, and you wonder how you wound up on the fire escape. That's life, I'm telling you. Don't bother getting older. Art's the only way I've ever had of making any sense of it.”
― Benjamin Wood, Seascraper

“He's never wasted any thoughts on his appearance. Jut what sort of figure he presents out here in his rank sea-clothes hasn't bothered him before. Now, being drawn, he's too aware of his own body and its failings. How his spine must curve while he sits at the reins, the way his grandpa's used to do. His ingrown nails begin to throb, his shoulders ache.”
― Benjamin Wood, Seascraper

“That morning, she was wearing an orange cotton dress; she looked like a burning sunset, and Chika knew immediately that his story would end with her, that he would drown in her large liquid eyes and it would be the perfect way to go. There was nothing boiling in him, just a loud and clear exhale, a weight of peace wrapping around his heart. Kavita looked up and smiled at him, and somehow Chika found the liver to ask her to lunch.”
― Akwaeke Emezi, The Death of Vivek Oji

“Edgar backs off with his cases, heading for the front steps while the horse begins its ponderous turn out of the car park; and when he finds that Edgar is still standing there to wave him off, he knows they've passed beyond the territory of strangers, into something more like friendship.”
― Benjamin Wood, Seascraper