“The act of writing in real time in order to deflect, escape, or slow it down is obviously futile yet not entirely fruitless.”
― Year of the Monkey
― Year of the Monkey
“Nobody knows what's going on. We are thrown across our lives by winds that started blowing millions of years ago.”
― All Fours
― All Fours
“I thought of Thomas Paine‘s words: these are the times that try men’s souls. Outside, the rain ceased but high winds remained. And what was truth remained the truth. It was the last day of the year of the monkey and the golden cockerel was crowing, for the insufferable yellow-haired confidence man had been sworn in, with a Bible no less, and Moses and Jesus and Buddha and Mohamed seemed somewhere else entirely.”
― Year of the Monkey
― Year of the Monkey
“There’s this idea in psychoanalysis that I’ve always liked.” Julian pulled himself closer and rested his head in the crook of Paul’s arm. “It’s that what we call ‘love’ is actually letting your identity fill in around the shape of the other person—you love someone by defining yourself against them. It says loss hurts because there’s nothing holding that part of you in place anymore. But your outline still holds, and it keeps holding. The thing you shaped yourself into by loving them, you never stop being that. The marks are permanent, so the idea of the person you loved is permanent, too.”
― These Violent Delights
― These Violent Delights
“I guess any calling, no mater what it is, is a kind of unresolved ache," I said, giving in to knowing more than him. "It's a problem that you can't fix, but there is some relief in knowing you will commit your whole life to trying. Every second you have is somehow for it.”
― All Fours
― All Fours
hogwench’s 2025 Year in Books
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