Mark Iskarous

“You want me to pretend that I love you.”
“It’s easy,” he said. “Just assume our wills are united.”
“What does that mean?”
“Well, that we want all the same things. That we want what’s best for each other. That we take one another’s ends as our own, and that our ideal outcome is one in which we’re together. Haven’t you ever been in love?”
― R.F. Kuang, Katabasis

“That, as of old, was the writer's job, maybe his primary job. To show us the futures we didn't want, and the futures we could have if we wanted. The key line in the speech for me, was the one about, "We live in captialism, its power seems inescapable--but then, so did the divine right of kings." We can change out lives.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, Ursula K. Le Guin: The Last Interview and Other Conversations

“How good it felt when she seemed to abandon her body altogether— when she became fully incorporeal, drifting happily in a universe of ideas. She was very proud of the days that she forgot to eat. Not because she had any revulsion for food, but because it was some proof that she had transcended some basic cycle of need. That she was not just an animal after all, held captive by her desires. That she was above all a mind, and the mind was capable of miraculous things.”
― R.F. Kuang, Katabasis

“You might say karma is like a seed. Seeds grow into fruit. Karma is a natural consequence. Badness accrues. It affects the way you live your life, how you perceive the world. When you do evil things, you see the world as petty and selfish and cruel. And what you experience in Hell is just the final ripple effect of your original evil. You get precisely what you asked for. And I think the whole point of Hell is to show you the full extent of what you wanted.”
― R.F. Kuang, Katabasis