Home > Work > The Paper Menagerie
1 " Each moment and everywhere, civilizations rise and fall, much as the stars are born and die. "
― Ken Liu , The Paper Menagerie
2 " I’ve been wandering around the streets of New York all day. I can’t keep her savage beauty out of my mind. I wish my soul was heavier, more solid, something that could weigh itself down. I wish my soul wasn’t this feather, this ugly wisp of goose down in my pocket, lifted up and buffeted about by the wind around her flame. I feel like a moth. "
3 " Perhaps it is the dream of every parent to keep their child in that brief period between helpless dependence and separate selfhood when the parent is seen as perfect, faultless. It is a dream of control and mastery disguised as love, the dream that Lear had about Cordelia "
4 " In those killings a new kind of magic was born. Now, no one is allowed to talk about the 228 Massacre. The number 228 is a taboo."I took Teddy in after his parents were executed for trying to commemorate that day. I came here, away from the city, so that I could live in a small cottage and drink my tea in peace. The villagers respect those who have read books, and they come to me to ask my advice on picking names for their children that will bring good fortune. Even after so many men died because of a few magic words, we continue to have faith in the power of words to do good. "
