Uvrón

“Despite rumors to the contrary, I’m a romantic and an idealist. What I write seems bleak, but it stems from my understanding of what people are: this raw, raging, aching bundle of desire. Of course we have to learn to handle that, both as writers and people.”
― M. John Harrison

“When I was a young man and very well thought of,
I couldn't ask aught that the ladies denied.
I nibbled their hearts like a handful of raisins,
And I never spoke love but I knew that I lied.

But I said to myself, 'Ah, they none of them know
The secret I shelter and savor and save
I wait for the one who will see through my seeming,
And I'll know when I love by the way I behave.'

The years drifted over like clouds in the heavens;
The ladies went by me like snow on the wind.
I charmed and I cheated, deceived and dissembled,
And I sinned, and I sinned, and I sinned, and I sinned.

But I said to myself, 'Ah, they none of them see
There's part of me pure as the whisk of a wave.
My lady is late but she'll find I've been faithful,
And I'll know when I love by the way I behave.'

At last came a lady both knowing and tender,
Saying, 'you're not at all what they take you to be.'
I betrayed her before she had quite finished speaking,
And she swallowed cold poison and jumped in the sea.

And I say to myself when there's time for a word,
As I gracefully grow more debauched and depraved,
'Ah, love may be strong, but a habit is stronger
And I knew when I loved by the way I behaved.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“Tears had begun to pour down Nazareth’s face, and the women were delighted to see them; it was when a woman ought to weep but couldn’t that there was cause for alarm. But they hurt for her all the same.”
― Suzette Haden Elgin, Native Tongue

“People have their fictions and believe what they have mutually agreed upon. But you know, it's not necessarily true that things are only like this or that... I urge you to create your own fiction, one that says it's you who's perfect, for instance.”
― Olga Tokarczuk, The Empusium