Azita Rassi

“Three people in all the world knew me for what I was—” I said. “And all the rest—” I shrugged. “They knew you for what you were, too,” he said abruptly. “That wasn’t me,” I said, startled by his sharpness. “Whoever it was—” said Wirtanen, “he was one of the most vicious sons of bitches who ever lived.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Night

“I will dance to the music of words, for one more time.”
― Tan Twan Eng, The Garden of Evening Mists

“As one who has experienced extensively with life in the home and community, using real people in true-to-life situations, I doubt that any playthings could prepare a child for one millionth of what is going to hit him in the teeth, ready or not. My own feeling is that a child should start experimenting with real people and real communities from the moment of birth, if possible. If, for some reason, these materials are not available, then playthings must be used. But not bland, pleasing, smooth, easily manipulated playthings like those in your brochure, friends! Let there be nothing harmonious about our children’s playthings, lest they grow up expecting peace and order, and be eaten alive. As for children’s working off aggressions, I’m against it. They are going to need all the aggressions they can contain for ultimate release in the adult world.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Night

“Bats are flooding out from the hundreds of caves that perforate these mountainsides. I watch them plunge into the mists without any hesitation, trusting in the echoes and silences in which they fly. Are all of us the same, I wonder, navigating our lives by interpreting the silences between words spoken, analyzing the returning echoes of our memory in order to chart the terrain, in order to make sense of the world around us?”
― Tan Twan Eng, The Garden of Evening Mists