Duma Key

she had whistled for a dog and gotten a wolf.

we fool ourselves so much we could do it for a living.

“Meantime, do the day and let the day do you!”

I saw her lying on her side, sleeping just as she had as a kid: one hand tucked under her cheek and one knee drawn up almost to her chest. We think we change, but we don’t really—that’s what Wireman says.

Pain is the biggest power of love.

the unconscious mind writes poetry if it’s left alone.

There is no tyrant as merciless as pain, no despot so cruel as confusion.

Black is the absence of light, but white is the absence of memory, the color of can’t remember.

When I peeked in through the half-open door of the second bedroom, I saw her lying on her side, sleeping just as she had as a kid: one hand tucked under her cheek and one knee drawn up almost to her chest. We think we change, but we don’t really—that’s what Wireman says.