Aaqilah

“I don't know, humane or not, man, a life is a life. Push a button half a million miles away or stick a shiv in a man's kidney while the dude stares you in the eye, you still got blood on your hands.”
― Duncan Ralston, Dead Men Walking: a Novelette

“I never really wanted to be free from you, but now that I was, I would have to build a home inside myself, and I would never invite you in.”
― Nicola Maye Goldberg, Other Women: And Other Stories

“On the night you finally tell him, take him out to dinner. Translate the entrees for him. When you are home, lying in bed together, tell him that you are going to leave. He will look panicked, but not surprised. Perhaps he will say, Look, I don't care who else you're seeing or anything: what is your reason?

Do not attempt to bandy words. Tell him you do not love him anymore. It will make him cry, rivulets wending their way into his ears. You will start to feel sick. He will say something like: Well, you lose some, you lose some. You are supposed to laugh. Ex-hale. Blow your nose. Flick off the light. Have a sense of humor, he will whisper into the black. Have a heart.

Make him breakfast. He will want to know where you will go. Reply: To the actor. Or: To the hunchbacks. He will not eat your break-fast. He will glare at it, stir it around the plate with a fork, and then hurl it against the wall.”
― Lorrie Moore, Self-Help

“Hope is the slowest poison.”
― Duncan Ralston, Dead Men Walking: a Novelette