Den Shae

“...the only animal that was forbidden to be forbidden was the land turtle, which had appeared in the kitchen in the past century, nobody knew when or from where, and which was not considered a living thing but rather a mineral good-luck charm whose location was never known for certain.”
― Gabriel García Márquez, Love in the Time of Cholera

“read it in the paper the other day. I meant to tell you about it, but I forgot. It was an interview with some veterinarian. Apparently, horses are tremendously influenced by the phases of the moon—both physically and emotionally. Their brain waves go wild as the full moon approaches, and they start having all kinds of physical problems. Then, on the night itself, a lot of them get sick, and a huge number of those die. Nobody really knows why this happens, but the statistics prove that it does. Horse vets never have time to sleep on full-moon nights, they’re so busy.”
― Haruki Murakami, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

“People who believe that they are strong-willed and the masters of their destiny can only continue to believe this by becoming specialists in self-deception.”
― James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room