Lale Davidson

“Butterflies taste with their feet, sea turtles breathe through their asses, and no one really understands gravity or love, least of all her.”
― Lâle Davidson, Blue Woman Burning: A Novel

“No empire imposed by force or otherwise has ever been without this feature: control of the indigenous by members of their own group. In the case of Gilead, there were many women willing to serve as Aunts, either because of a genuine belief in what they called "traditional values", or for the benefits they might thereby acquire. When power is scarce, a little of it is tempting.”
― Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale

“He looked up at the stars, dimly poking through the clouds. The Incas named the shapes of the dark space between the stars rather than the constellations of stars themselves, as the Greeks did. That was how he felt about [her] death. He loved the shape of her in his mind, which even included the shape of her absence.”
― Lâle Davidson, Blue Woman Burning: A Novel

“I guess that's how they were able to do it, in the way they did it, all at once, without anyone knowing beforehand. If there had still been portable money, it would have been more difficult.
It was after the catastrophe, when they shot the president and machine-gunned the Congress and the army declared a state of emergency. They blamed it on the Islamic fanatics at the time.
I was stunned. Everyone was, I know that. It was hard to believe, the entire government gone like that. How did they get in, how did it happen?
That was when they suspended the Constitution. They said it would be temporary. There wasn't even any rioting in the streets. People stayed home at night, watching television, looking for some direction. There wasn't even an enemy you could put your finger on.”
― Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale