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121 " First thought: How terrible that she cannot kill herself. "
― Sarah Manguso , 300 Arguments: Essays
122 " The quality that all last words share: the silence after. "
123 " If you want to know someone's secret, don't ask a thing. Just listen. "
124 " It's a self-obliteration that never stops and that no one notices. "
125 " But it felt so good, I kept doing it. "
126 " Not every narrative is an arc. The universe, for example, just keeps expanding. "
127 " If you insist that people witness your beauty, they'll watch it closely until it's gone. "
128 " Some people always give excellent gifts. It is a talent. A gift. Unteachable. "
129 " I'm stuck in a waiting room with the TV on the same channel all day, and I'm never called in for my appointment. "
130 " The most fervent kiss of my life was less than five seconds long more than ten years ago with someone else's husband. It still hasn't quite worn off. "
131 " What fails to kill me will kill me eventually. "
132 " The full moon is saying 'O!' But the sun is silent "
133 " I want to shed my fears one by one until there is nothing left of me. "
134 " If you go to Paris, you won't find Paris; you'll find yourself in Paris. Ditto anywhere else. You might as well stay home. "
135 " Once you've traveled far enough from where you began, it's impossible to reconcile the present with the past. "
136 " I closed my own eyes for a moment and recovered, but incompletely. I can't forget how close insanity is, how easy it might be to drive off the shoulder of the road into a place where no one would ever find me. "
137 " I go to another room, hoping someone will notice me, but I stay silent out of loyalty or fear. "
138 " I look at young people and marvel at their ignorance of what's coming, and the old people look at me. "
139 " Giving up and submitting to suffering looks the same as achieving total detachment and surpassing the Buddha. "
140 " I hadn't remembered that in decades. That particular quiet. "