Home > Work > The Other Typist
1 " What was justice, after all, but a particular outcome? "
― Suzanne Rindell , The Other Typist
2 " The typewriter is indeed my passport into a world otherwise barred to me and my kind. "
3 " You see, doubt is a magnificently difficult pest of which to try and rid oneself and is worse than any other kind of infestation. It can creep in quietly and through the tiniest of cracks and once inside, it is almost impossible to ever completely remove. "
4 " With each mile we put behind us, I felt the air grow lighter in my lungs. It was as if the city had been one large pressure cooker, simmering in its own juices. With the top down on the coupe and a stalwart, man-made breeze blowing steadily in my face, I tallied the city's many summertime brutalities: the heat that radiated from the gray asphalt and made the air dance in wavy shimmers; the stagnant ponds in Central Park that turned a milky, putrid, almost phosphorescent green and incubated countless mosquitoes; the blasts of hot dirty air that breathed upward from every subway grate; oh, and how the loud noises pouring from construction sites even somehow seemed to further agitate and heat the air! "
5 " There is something darkly thrilling about standing on the balcony of a very tall building and looking over the edge with the silent knowledge that it is in one's own power to jump. Jumping is, of course, very unwise --- an act fated to resolve itself in total self- annihilation. Let there be no illusions in that. And yet one is nonetheless tempted to consider the dare. "
6 " If I had to make a conjecture on the matter, I would guess lying is very likely less difficult when it is done over the telephone. It is interesting to me how technology has in many ways facilitated and refined the practice of deception. "
7 " She was called Helen - a name, I fear, that may have gone to her head, for she frequently acted as though she had confused herself with Helen of Troy. "
8 " It is interesting to me how technology has in many ways facilitated and refined the practice of deception "
9 " But that's the funny thing about treasure—we assume everyone wants what we hold most dear. "
10 " The slope that leads toward insanity has the paradoxical distinction of being both steep and yet undetectable to the person sliding down it. "
11 " Which is just to say, be careful when choosing what you're proud of--because the world has every intention of using it against you. "
12 " That evening, she went from knock-kneed tomboy to Greek goddess in the space of twenty-two short, red-carpeted steps. "
13 " ...crazy people rarely know they're crazy. "
14 " It would seem this is the gift modernity has bestowed upon our generation: the practice of "dating," an awkward procedure where a man and a woman find themselves talking rot to each other in a darkened room. If it were up to me, I would say modernity can keep it, as I want no part. "
15 " ...it is our animal nature to judge the wake more harshly, owing to how survival depends upon weeding these creatures out. "
16 " The modern world is a strange place indeed, and I fear it is one in which I do not belong. "
17 " Perhaps it’s rather revealing to say so, but while I cannot for the life of me recall what I was wearing that evening, I nonetheless remember every little stitch of black embroidery on her red dress. "
18 " [t]here's a rather large difference between brave and reckless. "
19 " The heart is a funny organ, with such stubborn biases. "
20 " But that’s the funny thing about treasure—we assume everyone wants what we hold most dear. "
