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121 " I suppose I think we need God for the same reason we need art.’‘Because it’s nice to look at?’‘No.’ Mira smiled. ‘Because it shows us what’s possible. "
― Chloe Benjamin , The Immortalists
122 " Some magicians say that magic shatters your worldview. But I think magic holds the world together. It’s dark matter; it’s the glue of reality, the putty that fills the holes between everything we know to be true. "
123 " In Simon’s voice, he heard the siren song of family—how it pulls you despite all sense; how it forces you to discard your convictions, your righteous selfhood, in favor of profound dependence. "
124 " Perhaps nothing would have happened were it not the pit of summer, with a month and a half ahead. There is no air-conditioning in the apartment, and this year - the summer of 1969 - it seems something is happening to everyone but them. People are getting wasted at Woodstock and singing 'Pinball Wizard' and watching Midnight Cowboy, which none of the Gold children are allowed to see. They're rioting outside Stonewall, ramming the doors with uprooted parking meters, smashing windows and jukeboxes. They're being murdered in the most gruesome way imaginable, with chemical explosives and guns that can fire five hundred and fifty bullets in succession, their faces transmitted with horrifying immediacy to the television in the Gold's kitchen. 'They're walking on the motherf***ing moon,' said Daniel, who has begun to use this sort of language, but only at a safe remove from their mother. James Earl Ray is sentenced, and so is Sirhan Sirhan, and all the while the Golds play jacks or darts or rescue Zoya from an open pipe behind the oven, which she seems convinced is her rightful home.But something else created the atmosphere required for this pilgrimage: they are siblings, this summer, in a way they will never be again. Next year, Varya will go to the Catskills with her friend Aviva. Daniel will be immersed in the private rituals of the neighborhood boys, leaving Klara and Simon to their own devices. In 1969, though, they are still a unit, yoked as if it isn't possible to be anything but. "
125 " New to her are three more inches of height and the dark patch of fur between her legs. Her breasts are palm sized, her nipples pink dimes. "
126 " This should not surprise his wife and children - they are used to his king silences - and yet Simon feels cheated, robbed of a final memory of his father, who remains as close-lipped in death as he was in life. "
― Chloe Benjamin
127 " He imagined a new God, one who nudged him when he was going the wrong way but never strong-armed him, one who advised but did not insist--one who guided him, like a father. A Father. (pg.181) "
128 " The power of words. They weaseled under door crevices and through keyholes. They hooked into invididuals and wormed through generations. "
129 " It sounds like you're saying we can choose to live. Or we can choose to survive. "
