Larisse

“To me, fiction writing at any length, in any form, is a feat of radical compression: take the sprawling chaos of human experience, run it through the sieve of perception, and distill it into something comparatively miniscule that somehow, miraculously, illuminates the vast complexity around it. I don’t think about short stories any differently than I do about novels or novellas or even memoirs. But the smaller scale of a story is important; the distillation must be even more extreme in order to succeed. It also must be purer; there is almost no room for mistakes.”
― Jennifer Egan, The Best American Short Stories 2014

“I am here because of love.”
― David Levithan, How They Met, and Other Stories

“The third planet is incapable of supporting life,” stated the husband patiently. “Our scientists have said there’s far too much oxygen in their atmosphere.”
― Ray Bradbury, The Martian Chronicles

“Lauren: Hey. Um. This is kind of a weird - but do you ever wonder how many times your life is gonna end?

A pause.

Schultz: Uh... I'm not sure I know what / you--

Lauren: Like how many people you're...like how many times your life is gonna totally change and then, like, start all over again? And you'll feel like what happened before wasn't real and what's happening now is actually... (she trails off)”
― Annie Baker, The Vermont Plays