Living

It's so awful
it's kind of nice.

— Richard Yates, "Revolutionary Road"

Tears

Tears leave a permanent mark.
If you cry, people like Dad
can find you whenever they want to.
You'll never be able to hide.

— Alice Hoffman, "Skylight Confessions"

Life

There's just one thing
stronger than death, Roxy,
and that's love.

— Louise Shivers, "Here To Get My Baby Out of Jail"

Clouds

I don't know anything
as spellbinding as a fire

except maybe clouds
on a day when the wind

moves them along so fast
that they change shapes

constantly and the eye
can's leave for fascination.

— Louise Shivers, "Here To Get My Baby Out of Jail"

Not-there

The silence
in the room
came alive,
like the positive space
in a Chinese landscape painting,
or the words left out of a poem.

— Mark Salzman, "Lying Awake"

Alive

"You were never ... alive."
"I was ... alive," he says feebly. "Alive?"

"No, you weren't," I say. "You know what I mean."

"What was I, then?" he asks.

"You were just" — I pause,
look out over the expanse
of white carpet into
a massive white kitchen,
white chairs on a gleaming tiled floor
— "not dead."

— Bret Easton Ellis, "The Informers"

Smile

"Turn that frown upside down," Sheldon says.

"What would that get me —
an upside-down frown, what?"

— Bret Easton Ellis, "The Informers"