Rajib Rahman

“hope that he will not know pain or betrayal or disappointment, but of course he will, because he’s alive and that’s the price we pay.”
― John Boyne, The Elements

“We all tell lies to protect our solitude. We deny the truth and present a false image of ourselves to blend into society.”
― Saleem Haddad

“I suppose it’s a cliché to say you’re glad to be alive, that life is short, but to say you’re glad to be not dead requires a specific intimacy with loss that comes only with age or deep experience. One has to know not simply what dying is like, but to know death itself, in all its absoluteness. After all, there are many ways to die—peacefully, violently, suddenly, slowly, happily, unhappily, too soon. But to be dead—one either is or isn’t. The same cannot be said of aliveness, of which there are countless degrees. One can be alive but half-asleep or half-noticing as the years fly, no matter how fully oxygenated the blood and brain or how steadily the heart beats. Fortunately, this is a reversible condition. One can learn to be alert to the extraordinary and press pause—to memorize moments of the everyday.”
― Bill Hayes, Insomniac City: New York, Oliver, and Me

“After all, aren’t housekeepers the bearers of all family secrets”
― Saleem Haddad