Faith Rice-Mills’s Reviews > Red City > Status Update

“Is monstrosity what it takes to progress civilization? Why else was mankind given this capacity for unspeakable cruelty?”

“It wasn’t free because something cannot come from nothing. Everything has an equal and opposite cost. The equation must always be balanced. Greatness, in exchange for a soul.”

“What choices do you have, when you have nothing?”

“‘Eddie,’ his mother used to say as she twisted her braids up into a tight bun. ‘People like us, we have to work twice as hard to get half the reward. But we still show up, don’t we? And we show them, don’t we?’”

“And Sam wonders if this is how it happens to all of them, that once upon a time, he had seen beauty in the world too, had trusted and smiled and been a child. He had kept his heart open until he couldn’t bear the wounds any longer, and then he had shut it, letting himself go still and cold. “

“Maybe it’s all of it. Maybe it doesn’t matter. Maybe happiness only exists in fragments. Maybe it is only the absence of grief….

Everything looks infinite, like it’s all possible, like she can become anything. All is one, and one is all. And isn’t this worth it? Isn’t she worth it?”

“But does more money ever become an ugly thing? When does it stop saving your life and start destroying it?”

“People love to talk about the wickedness of money even as they covet it, because the truth is that it can save you too, can set you free. “

“When something terrible happens, do we become the best version of ourselves?”

“Everything can be more beautiful. And because it has the potential to be beautiful later, everything suddenly feels less beautiful now.”