Isabella

“if a man was dressed in English clothes he was bound to be an Italian, and vice versa.”
― Patricia Highsmith, The Talented Mr. Ripley

“To look back, to give in to the place where fear and curiosity intersect, is to sacrifice the ground you’ve gained. It slows you down, just enough, and also informs your would-be captor that you are thinking about them more than you’re thinking about escape or glory or the open rim. The chase, like the chasedown block, isn’t only about who is afraid and who isn’t, but fear is always what hums underneath.”
― Hanif Abdurraqib, There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension

“When we set off to write a novel, when we use writing to create a story, like it or not a kind of toxin that lies deep down in all humanity rises to the surface. All writers have to come face-to-face with this toxin and, aware of the danger involved, discover a way to deal with it, because otherwise no creative activity in the real sense can take place. (Please excuse the strange analogy: with a fugu fish, the tastiest part is the portion near the poison—this might be something similar to what I’m getting at.)”
― Haruki Murakami, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

“I remember feeling like the concrete was opening up and I know this to be nothing but rage I know this to be what comes after swinging wild punches at the air and imagining the faces of your worst demons the cops the politicians who call the places you love war zones the helicopters that won’t let you sleep that claw through the walls and wake up elders and children and goddamn I remember at my feet that blood-stained concrete just split right in half and opened up and I want a whole city underground if it does not love my people I want to bury the new condo developments instead of my people I want to bury the craft breweries and the barcades and the mixed-use helltowers instead of my people I want the statues melted down I want the mothers of murdered children to do it I want the heat to rise from a statue’s vanishing and last for ten summers I don’t want apologies anymore no not this time I want the mayor to walk through a place he called a war zone at night I want people to get real honest with themselves about what war actually is I want the schools to have heat I want the schools to have air I want the riot gear thrown in the river the river that was blue when I was a boy but now leaves brown streaks as it runs away from the city I want the brown river to carry the riot gear to some other hell and I want the babies to stop passing out in school do you hear me I want a whole city under the ground some days but I at least want the rain I at least want something to wash the blood away so that no one who loved him has to and somewhere beyond the blood what I don’t remember is 5:00 when I learned not to run from the cops and I don’t remember when I first ignored that advice.”
― Hanif Abdurraqib, There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension