“It’s not something to fix,” he said. “It means strong. Outside of all expectation.” I looked at him. He looked at me. His hands were on his desk with the fingers touching, a tiny cage with air inside. Black hands. The knuckles almost blue-black. Silver wedding ring. He said, “You know, sometimes you hear about these miracles, where a car gets completely mangled in a wreck. But then the driver walks out of it alive? I’m saying you are that driver.”
― Demon Copperhead
― Demon Copperhead
“I got up every day thinking the sun was out there shining, and it could just as well shine on me as any other human person.”
― Demon Copperhead
― Demon Copperhead
“She glimpsed that same craving in Jenny Fisk—an ask, for suffering. It was the scariest thing about being a woman. It was hardwired, ageless, the part that knew you could have the good without the hurt, but it wouldn’t be nearly as exquisite.”
― Notes on an Execution
― Notes on an Execution
“I felt the kindliness of the moss, which is all over everywhere once you get out of the made world. God’s flooring. All the kinds, pillowy, pin-cushiony, shag carpet. Gray sticks of moss with red heads like matchsticks. Some tiny dead part of me woke up to the moss and said, Man. Where you been.”
― Demon Copperhead
― Demon Copperhead
“At the time, I thought my life couldn’t get any worse. Here’s some advice: Don’t ever think that.”
― Demon Copperhead
― Demon Copperhead
Dayle’s 2025 Year in Books
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