Patrick Shea

“how it has to be, it must have a meaning, yes, Our Lord must have given it meaning, they think, he writes straight on crooked lines, they think, or anyway the good Lord is part of it all somehow, and it’s the devil who made the lines crooked, they think and they hold onto their cigarettes and pints and then they pray a silent prayer, a prayer more like a look out over the sea inside them, wordless, but as far as the eye can reach over that sea the prayer extends, entirely wordless, because the words will be left behind, definitely, but there must be a port for people like them too, they’re probably thinking, and then they feel a prick of something like fear so they raise their pint and have a taste of beer, the good old taste, it gives them a sense of security, I”
― Jon Fosse, The Other Name: Septology I-II

“remember—if your church isn’t telling you to love your enemies but keeps telling you who your enemies are, you’re not really in a church.”
― John Fugelsang, Separation of Church and Hate

“If anyone’s trying to use the Bible to justify any meanness to LGBTQ people, they’ve always got to go around Jesus. Being gay is natural; hating gay is a lifestyle choice. And unlike being gay, homophobia is highly curable.”
― John Fugelsang, Separation of Church and Hate

“Memories swell [like a bee sting],” he wrote. “When we first feel them in our skin there’s that breathcatching moment before knowing whether we’ll feel grief or joy.”
― Sam Wasson, The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood