Jon’s Reviews > Counterpunch > Status Update

'Every man has a price. I don’t, Brooklyn thought. You can’t buy me. You can’t break my heart.'

'He’d fuck, or be fucked; he’d fight, sleep, take a shit, and eat when they told him to. Sometimes, having those choices taken away almost gave him something like solace. Not his choices anymore.
Following orders was easy, even if it was hard.'

'Nathaniel smiled and grabbed his hand, entwined their fingers. This reminded Brooklyn of sex, open-mouthed wonder and greed, grinding together, and how Nathaniel gave him everything.
Allowed himself to fall, to surrender. He could have anything from that man, and that had a strange effect on him.'

'Maybe he’d missed that most. Tenderness. Intimacy. Another human being holding him like he mattered, like he was a person. Maybe even somebody special.'

'He despised freemen, but he wanted this one.'

“No, you do it because you have the heart of a warrior. You’re hungry. For justice, for freedom, maybe even for death. But you want to die on your feet, fighting. Right?”