Lin Quotes

Haven't you ever heard of the saying, "If you want to shoot the general, first shoot the horse!"?' --Lin If you wanna shoot the general, then you should just SHOOT THE GENERAL!' --Ed

I am the one thing in life I can control. I am inimitable; I am an original. I'm not falling behind or running late. I'm not standing still: I am lying in wait.

[BURR] I am the one thing in life I can control.

Death doesn't discriminate between the sinners and the saints, it takes and it takes and it takes, and we keep living anyway....

You’re like a rose in a graveyard. I wonder what you could have turned into without the war

Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.

You have no control. Who lives, who dies, who tells your story.

If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live

There is something in the nature of tea that leads us into a world of quiet contemplation of life.

I always have to choose, and I never get to choose you. I'm tired of not getting to choose you

You are not replaceable," he said, his hands trembling against her shoulders. "You are not required to make your death convenient. You are allowed to be important to people.

[HAMILTON] I imagine death so much it feels more like a memory

I have warned you. If something happens to you, I will personally raze the entire Order. That isn't a threat. That is a promise. Consider your survival as much a necessity to the survival of the Resistance as Potter's. If you die, I will kill every last one of them.

Look around, look around at how lucky we are to be alive right now.

You are perfectly cast in your life. I can't imagine anyone but you in the role. Go play.

She was a non-active member of the Order of the Phoenix and did not fight.

Being alive is not the same as living. I hope someday you'll have a chance to realise the difference.

No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.

Love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love cannot be killed or swept aside.

When Small men begin to cast big shadows, it means that the sun is about to set.

I know my sister like I know my own mind, you will never find anyone as trusting or as kind.

Those who are wise won't be busy, and those who are too busy can't be wise.

She was a non-active member of the Order of the Eternal Flame and did not fight.

Dying is easy, young man. Living is harder

You’re like a rose in a graveyard,” he said, and his lips twisted into a bitter smile. “I wonder what you could have turned into without the war.

I’m sorry—I’m sorry—I’m so sorry. I’m sorry for everything I did to you,” he said, his voice hoarse and broken. “I love you. You left, and I’d never told you.

[HAMILTON} There's a million things I haven't done but just you wait. Just you wait.

Why do you write like you're running out of time?

Raise a glass to freedom Something they can never take away No matter what they tell you

To engender empathy and create a world using only words is the closest thing we have to magic.

[ELIZA] You and your words flooded my senses, your sentences left me defenseless. You built me palaces out of paragraphs, you built cathedrals.

How on Earth did you do that with the same 24 hours a day that everyone else gets?

Be careful. Don't die. Only because you asked.

Someday, she promised herself, someday I am going to love him in a moment that isn't stolen

If he's a monster, then I'm his creator. What did you think was the source of all his rage?

History is entirely created by the person who tells the story.

Legacy. What is a Legacy? It's planting seeds in a garden you never get to see

I guess my point is that I do believe in love. Really. I'm just not convinced that kind of love could ever happen to me.

Do I know you?” she asked as her eyes slid closed. “I suppose you do.

They were the inverse and counter to each other. A healer and killer, circling slowly, the push and pull inexorable.

You are not replaceable,” he said. His hands were shaking as he gripped her. “You are not required to make your death convenient. You are allowed to be important to people. The reason I took that fucking Vow was to keep you alive. To keep you safe." - Chapter 52: Flashback 27

Malfoy always comes for me.

If he’s a monster, then I’m his creator.

I’m going to take care of you. I’m not going to let anyone hurt you. You don’t have to be lonely, because you’re mine.

Grief has a taste, bitter and lingering, but so soft it sometimes disguises itself as sweetness.

He’d loved her, even though he never expected them to be anything but doomed. He’d loved her all the same.

I may not live to see our glory But I will gladly join the fight And when our children tell our story They'll tell the story of tonight

[WASHINGTON] It’s alright, you want to fight, you’ve got a hunger I was just like you when I was younger Head full of fantasies of dyin’ like a martyr? [HAMILTON] Yes [WASHINGTON] Dying is easy, young man. Living is harder

What is patriotism but the love of the food one ate as a child?

The correct arrangement of words will make these bad feelings go away tonight.

Come on brain, think of things Come on brain, think of things Come on brain, be so smart

You made me feel like the parts of me that aren’t useful still deserve to exist. Like I’m not just all the things I can do.

Lin beamed, and threw a couple of triumphant middle fingers in the air.

{BURR} Life doesn't discriminate between the sinners and the saints. It takes and it takes and it takes. And we keep living anyway. We rise and we fall and we break and we make our mistakes and if there's a reason I'm still alive when so many have died then I'm willing to-- wait for it.

I am not throwing away my shot. I am not throwing away my shot. I'm just like my country. I'm young, scrappy, and hungry. And I am not throwing away my shot.

Do you sometimes look up from the computer and look around the room and know you are alone, I mean really know it, then feel scared ?

I promised I’d do anything for you.” She curled her fingers into a fist. “Maybe you didn’t realise how far I was willing to go.

She couldn’t fix herself anymore, and no one else seemed inclined to even notice she was breaking.

Dying is easy young man. Living Is harder

I promised--every time you asked, I promised I was yours always. There aren't any exemptions or expiration dates on always.

Comma sexting. It's a thing. Get into it.

If you make happy those that are near, those that are far will come.

You only lose what you cling to.

Sometimes I'm convinced I'll spend the rest of my life this way. Alone. Sometimes I think loneliness is my default setting. - Eliza Lin

There was an enjoyment to being alive, he felt, that because of an underlying meaninglessness–like how a person alone for too long cannot feel comfortable when with others; cannot neglect that underlying the feeling of belongingness is the certainty, really, of loneliness, and nothingness, and so experiences life in that hurried, worthless way one experiences a mistake–he could no longer get at.

But as she tried to unravel him, he grew increasingly tragic and terrifyingly human

I was having a drink with Hugh Laurie, with whom I’d worked on his series House, and I told him I wanted to write a breakup letter from King George to the colonies. Without blinking, he improv’d at me, “Awwww, you’ll be back,” wagging his finger. I laughed and filed it away. Thanks, Hugh Laurie.

The busy man is never wise and the wise man is never busy.

I’m sorry—I’m sorry—I’m so sorry for everything I did to you,” he said, his voice hoarse and broken. “I love you. You left, and I’d never told you.

The wise man reads both books and life itself.

When Lin optioned his book, Ron was relieved that the Founding Father who had the most dramatic and least appreciated life story would finally get his due—even though a rap musical was the last way that Ron had anticipated Hamilton getting it.

loneliness can fly a helicopter through a cut-out shape of a helicopter the same size as the helicopter and that's it's only skill and it isn't good enough but it's still amazing.

What if it’s not that simple, though?” she said “Everyone who wins says they were good, but they’re the ones who tell the story. They get to choose how we all remember it. What if it’s never that simple?

It doesn’t feel like it, Kate, but you’ve handled tougher stuff than this

sad things are beautiful only from a distance therefore you just want to get away from them from a distance of one hundred and thirty years ....i'm going to distance myself until the world is beautiful

I have warned you, if something happens to you, I will personally raze the Eternal Flame. That isn't a threat. It is a promise. Consider your survival as much as necessity to the Resistance as Holdfast's. If you die, I will kill every single one of them.

You were one person alive and your brain was encased in a skull. There were other people out there. It took effort to be connected.

The past places no absolute limit on the future.

He had such long fingers. In another life, he could have been a healer or a musician. He would have had the perfect hands for it.

On average, since the urge to kill myself isn't so strong that I actually kill myself, the world is worth living in.

Sometimes the right person tells the right story at the right moment, and through a combination of luck and design, a creative expression gains new force.

Someday I am going to love him in a moment that isn't stolen, she promised herself. -Chapter 35

Life, people learned, was not easy. Life was not cake. Life was not a carrot cake.

Anyone who reads a book with a sense of obligation does not understand the art of reading.

She's my friend, the boy said simply. That's who she is and that's enough for me. As Minli looked at the buffalo boy, aglow with happiness against his poor surroundings, she saw it was enough for him. More than enough, as the smile that kept curling up on his face told her.

I wish writing were really like the way Andy staged it here: Me in a mania at a desk while a group of people stand around cheering in awe. More realistically, it's me pooping around on Twitter until I get an idea.

On opening night, standing under the Rogers's marquee, [Lin] realized that if Eliza's struggle was the element of Hamilton's story that had inspired him the most, then the show itself was a part of her legacy.

If you stand for nothing, Burr, what'll you fall for?

Life doesn't discriminate Between the sinners and the saints It takes and it takes and it takes And we keep living anyway We rise and we fall and we break And we make our mistakes

I am the one thing in life I can control. I am inimitable. I am an original

Hope is like a road in the country; there was never a road, but when many people walk on it, the road comes into existence.

Whenever I see her, we laugh enough to last for the month. She's my best friend, and someday when we're old enough I'm going to talk her into staying here forever.

And I don't know how to make people stay; I never have.

Plausible Liars – Lin Wilder

I like spring, but it is too young. I like summer, but it is too proud. So I like best of all autumn, because its leaves are a little yellow, its tone mellower, its colours richer, and it is tinged a little with sorrow and a premonition of death. Its golden richness speaks not of the innocence of spring, nor of the power of summer, but of the mellowness and kindly wisdom of approaching age. It knows the limitations of life and is content. From a knowledge of those limitations and its richness of experience emerges a symphony of colours, richer than all, its green speaking of life and strength, its orange speaking of golden content and its purple of resignation and death

I’d consider it an act of mercy if you would eat at least one of those scones, Lindsey. Clearly, you don’t have my problem. You look even thinner than you did the last time we saw each other.

(On Angelica in 'Satisfied') Oof. Tryin’ to out-Eponine Eponine up in this piece.

It was always the last thing she said to him. The moment before he apparated away, as he stood in his Death Eater robes, she’d say it rather than goodbye. She’d catch his chin in her hand and stare up into his eyes. “Be careful. Don’t die.

You are not expandable. You don't get to push everyone away so that they'll feel comfortable using you and letting you die

I'm not throwing away my shot.

Talk less. Smile more.

The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on earth.

There is so much to love and to admire in this life that it is an act of ingratitude not to be happy and content in this existence.

Look," said Janet, irritated, "if the thing you liked best to do in the world was read, and somebody offered to pay you room and board and give you a liberal arts degree if you would just read for four years, wouldn't you do it?

You didn't expect these notes to turn into my therapy session, did you?

{ELIZA] I have never been the type to try and grab the spotlight. We were at a revel with some rebels on a hot night. Laughing at my sister as she dazzling the room. Then you walked in and my heart went boom.

There are no books in this world that everybody must read, but only books that a person must read at a certain time in a given place under given circumstances and at a given period of his life.

Talk less. Smile more. Don't let them know what you're against or what you're for.

(Questlove) Is this the most revolutionary thing to happen to Broadway, or the most revolutionary thing to happen to hip-hop?

Perhaps someday when I have time, I can make a list for you of all the things that apologies can't fix,

BURR: Alexander joins forces with James Madison and John Jay to write a series of essays defending the new United States Constitution, entitled The Federalist Papers. The plan was to write a total of 25 essays, the work divided evenly among the three men. In the end, they wrote 85 essays, in the span of six months. John Jay got sick after writing 5. James Madison wrote 29. Hamilton wrote the other 51.

Tam Lin says rabbits give up when they're caught by coyotes [...]. He says they consent to die because their animals and can't understand hope. But humans are different. They fight against death no matter how bad things seem, and sometimes, even when everything's against them, they win.

I’m erasing myself from the narrative. Let future historians wonder how Eliza reacted when you broke her heart.

You have married an Icarus; He has flown too close to the sun

My wife's the reason anything gets done, she nudges me towards promise by degrees. She is a perfect symphony of one our son is her most beautiful reprise. We chase the melodies that seem to find us until they're finished songs and start to play. When senseless acts of tragedy remind us that nothing here is promised--not one day. This show is proof that history remembers. We live in times when hate and fear seem stronger. We rise and fall and light from dying embers--remembrances that hope and love last longer. And love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love cannot be killed or swept aside. I sing Vanessa's symphony. Eliza tells her story. Now, fill the world with music, love, and pride.

His passion hadn't been explosive. it was a smoldering fire; the kind that grew secretly, like a ground fire deep in the earth, spreading and waiting before rising up, destroying the world above. She suspected he burned for things more deeply than even he was aware of.

Patriotism is the belief that not all human lives are worth the same.

He tasted like ice and firewhisky and sin.

Love doesn't discriminate Between the sinners And the saints. It takes and it takes and it takes And we keep loving anyway. We laugh and we cry And we break And we make our mistakes. And if there's a reason I'm by her side When so many have tried Then I'm willing to wait for it. I'm willing to wait for it

he’d set fire to the world around him but never let a flame touch her

He pressed his lips against her forehead. “You’re better than anyone,” he said quietly, the words brushing against her skin. “This world doesn’t deserve you at all.

I regard the discovery of one’s favorite author as the most critical event in one’s intellectual development.

If you die, I will kill every last one of them.

The man who has not the habit of reading is imprisoned in his immediate world, in respect to time and space. His life falls into a set routine; he is limited to contact and conversation with a few friends and acquaintances, and he sees only what happens in his immediate neighbourhood. From this prison there is no escape. But the moment he takes up a book, he immediately enters a different world, and if it is a good book, he is immediately put in touch with one of the best talkers of the world. This talker leads him on and carries him into a different country or a different age, or unburdens to him some of his personal regrets, or discusses with him some special line or aspect of life that the reader knows nothing about. An ancient author puts him in communion with a dead spirit of long ago, and as he reads along, he begins to imagine what the ancient author looked like and what type of person he was.

Helena squeezed his hand, running her fingers across the array. Calculating, Cunning, Devoted, Determined, Ruthless, Unfailing, Unhesitating, and Unyielding. To avenge his mother. In penance for all the ways he believed he'd failed her.

Expecto Patronum!” She poured every drop of emotion she had into the spell. White light exploded from her wand, growing larger and larger until her Patronus fully corporalized. Not her otter. Not a blur. Hermione stared up as a full-sized Antipodean Opaleye emerged from her wand. It filled the sky. It threw back its head, roaring and unfurling enormous wings. It opened its mouth, and white flames poured from it.

When you smile, you knock me out, I fall apart - and I thought I was so smart.

I guess the beautiful disaster turned into a beautiful wedding." "Miracles do happen," I said remembering the conversation she and I had what seemed like a lifetime ago.

[BURR] We dream of a brand new start, but we dream in the dark for the most part. Dark as a tomb where it happens. I've got to be in the room where it happens.

Every day has the potential to be the greatest day of your life.

If one's bowels move, one is happy, and if they don't move, one is unhappy. That is all there is to it.

Yes," Ba said sadly, "it is impossible. But it is not ridiculous.

She had never felt so unmotivated. Existing seemed like such an unfair demand.

She was locked in the dangerous embrace of Kaine Ferron, and it felt like home.

Everyone who wins say they were good, but they’re the ones who write the history. I haven’t seen anything indicating that it was actually moral superiority that made a difference.

We have been sitting here all night bullshitting and we still don’t know what to do.

Moose had no friends that year. A lot of the time a moose would feel tired and lean against other moose. Only there wouldn't be moose there and the moose would fall.

I should have known—the moment I looked into your eyes, I should have known I would never win against you.

We said always, didn’t we?” she asked, her voice strained. “Always. Well, if you don’t want that promise in full any longer, I’ll give it to you in increments.” She clutched his hand tighter. “Every day. I’ll choose you. That way you’ll know it’s still what I want.

Sometimes she wished she’d died in the hospital with her father, to be remembered and mourned for her possibilities, rather than live day by day growing ever lesser. Now it didn’t matter if she’d been an alchemist, or a healer, or anything else. To anyone who ever learned of it, she would only be that one thing. Women were always defined by the lowliest thing they could be called.

Stories are not a waste of time

Probably the difference between man and the monkeys is that the monkeys are merely bored, while man has boredom plus imagination.

I know how deep in the DNA musicals get because they're deep in my DNA.

You’re alright? Are you alright? Has anything happened to you?” He’d run his hands over her to check as he asked

Of all the rights of woman, the greatest is to be a mother

Let go your earthly tether. Enter the void. Empty, and become wind

You’ll do anything for the people who’ll let you love them.

If man be sensible and one fine morning, while he is lying in bed, counts at the tips of his fingers how many things in this life truly will give him enjoyment, invariably he will find food is the first one.

Anytime you write something, you go through so many phases. You go through the I’m a Fraud phase. You go through the I’ll Never Finish phase. And every once in a while you think, What if I actually have created what I set out to create, and it’s received as such?

Lately, they were always reassuring each other that nothing was wrong; and probably it was true—life wasn’t supposed to be incredible, after all. Life wasn’t some incredible movie. Life was all the movies, ever, happening at once. There were good ones, bad ones, some went straight to video.

This was the way into Burr. I knew he and Hamilton circled each other all their lives, I knew they went from friends to frenemies to foes, but it wasn’t til I read this detail online—that Theodosia was married to a British officer when Aaron Burr met her, and he waited until she was available—that the character of Burr came free in my imagination. Imagine Hamilton waiting—for anything. That’s when I realized our task was to dramatize not two ideological opposites, but a fundamental difference in temperament.

Thing about boats is, you can always sell them if you don't like them. Can't sell kids.

Gmorning. Allow for the possibility that the best of you is still inside you, waiting to emerge. Prepare the way, bit by bit.

It looked like Mission Control, if NASA's business was launching rockets full of rapping multiracial actors in colonial garb into space.

Time alone is the gift of self-entertainment - and that is the font of creativity

Good Morning Don't wait on anyone to make your favorite thing Make your own favorite thing Go

If art can help us grieve, can help us mourn, then lean on it.

There is no proper time and place for reading. When the mood for reading comes, one can read anywhere

Gmorning! You're gonna make mistakes. You're gonna fail. You're gonna get back up. You're gonna break hearts. You're gonna change minds. You're gonna make noise. You're gonna make music. You're gonna be late, let's GO. Gnight! You're gonna fall down. You're gonna be tested. You're gonna learn about yourself. You're gonna get brave. You're gonna take stands. You're gonna make waves. You're gonna make history. You're gonna need rest, REST UP.

Fortune was not a house full of gold and jade, but something much more.

Tipping her head back, he asked, “Do you trust me

Gmorning. This feeling will pass. This workload will pass. These people will pass. But look at you, with the gift of memory. You can time travel to the good stuff just by closing your eyes & breathing. Then come right back to now, eyes up for the good stuff ahead. You magic thing. Gnight. This moment will pass. This fatigue will pass. Tonight will pass. But look at you, with the gift of imagination. You can teleport to where you're happiest just by closing your eyes and breathing. Then come right back to now, check in with the present. You magic thing, you.

When my prayers to God were met with indifference, I picked up a pen, I wrote my own deliverance

Precisely. Whenever I get cabin fever in my Mustang home office, I’ll think of this place, look out my picture window at the pasture, and say ‘thank you.

That five pounds I lost are now back and brought friends

There is a difference between living the suffering and reading about it.

I never get to choose you. I’m so tired of not getting to choose you.

[NINA] When I was a child I stayed wide awake Climbed to the highest place On every fire escape Restless to climb I got every scholarship Saved every dollar The first to go to college How do I tell them why I’m coming back home?

And love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love cannot be killed or swept aside. I sing Vanessa's symphony. Eliza tells her story. Now, fill the world with music, love, and pride.

Had I known but yesterday what I know today, I’d have taken out your two gray eyes And put in eyes of clay; And had I known but yesterday you’d be no more my own I’d have taken out your heart of flesh And put in one of stone

Forgiveness. Can you imagine?

Sometimes it is more important to discover what one cannot do, than what one can do.

We don’t know, we can only hope and pray

Once upon a time… there had been a girl who fought. Who believed that books and cleverness and friendship and bravery could overcome all things. But now— —that girl was gone.

Ron told Pippa that during the six years he had spent on the book, Valerie Chernow had developed a powerful identification with Hamilton’s wife. “She used to say, ‘Eliza is like me: She’s good, she’s true, she’s loyal, she’s not ambitious.’ There was a purity and a goodness about the character, and that was like Valerie,” he says. In 2006, after 27 years of marriage, Valerie passed away. For her gravestone, Ron chose a line from the letter that Hamilton wrote to Eliza on the night before the duel: “Best of wives and best of women.

When he moved, she could tell that he’d stopped breathing. His fingers spasmed as he started to reach out. He hesitated and then just barely brushed the baby's palm as though he expected his touch to poison or break her. The tiny hand reflexively closed around his finger, gripping it. Draco sat frozen. Hermione watched him and recognized the expression in his eyes as he looked down at the little person who was clinging tenaciously to him. Possessive and adoring.

does a society exist where it's become acceptable to wear 'helmets' enclosing one's entire head when in public to preempt social interaction

[HAMILTON] There's a million things I haven't done but just you wait. Just you wait.

(On 'The Story Of Tonight (Reprise)') Tommy Kail and I always described this scene as “When your hometown friends are at the party with your college friends.

Even before I remembered, you were the only thing that ever felt safe.” She stared up into his eyes. “I left a note. Did you get my note? I love you.

This I conceive to be the chemical function of humor: to change the character of our thought.

The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of the nonessentials.

He already bore. And yet he rains down his mercy and goodness on us daily.

How do you write like tomorrow won’t arrive? How do you write like you need it to survive? How do you write ev’ry second you’re alive? Ev’ry second you’re alive? Ev’ry second you’re alive?

She lived in the aftermath of every battle, breathed in the devastation until she was drowning in it. Nothing and no one would ever convince her that anything noble or purifying could come from this scale of suffering. That any rewards could ever be worth it.

Oh, Marino.” His thumb trailed along her neck, following the scar below her jaw. “If I’d known what pain you’d cause me, I never would have taken you.” He sighed, and she could smell the liquor on his breath as his head dipped closer. She had no idea what he meant, if she was supposed to apologise. “But at this point I suppose I deserve to burn. I wonder if you’ll burn, too.” His face was so close the words brushed against her lips, and his mouth crashed against hers.

When you meet a master swordsman, show him your sword. When you meet a man who is not a poet, do not show him your poem. Robert Greene rephrase: When you meet a swordsman, draw your sword. Do not recite poetry to one who is not a poet.

Gmorning. YOU ARE SO LOVED AND WE LIKE HAVING YOU AROUND. *ties one end of this sentence to your heart, the other end to everyone who loves you, even the ones you haven’t heard from for a while* *checks knots* THERE. STAY PUT, YOU. Gnight. YOU ARE SO LOVED AND WE LIKE HAVING YOU AROUND. *ties one end of this sentence to your heart, the other end to everyone who loves you in this life, even if clouds obscure your view* *checks knots* THERE. STAY PUT, YOU. TUG IF YOU NEED ANYTHING.

As a child, she’d always had what she imagined were fascinating thoughts, but didn’t ever say them. Once, as a little girl, at recess, she thought that if she ran very fast at a pole and then caught it and swung quickly around, part of her would keep going, and she would become two girls.

Draco talked to Aurore more than he talked to anyone, even Hermione. He would monologue to her about anything, about the trees, and the furniture, all the shops where he’d bought books for Hermione, about what the weather might be, and what all the colours and hues of the analytic spells meant. Aurore would listen to him intently and fret when he got distracted or fell silent for too long.

He used to think things like, This organic soymilk will make me healthy and that'll make my brain work better and that'll improve my writing. Also things like, The less I eat the less money I spend on publicly owned companies the less pain and suffering will exist in the world. Now he thinks things like, It is impossible to be happy. Why would anyone think that?

i will learn how to love a person and then i will teach you and then we will know" seen from a great enough distance i cannot be seen i feel this as an extremely distinct sensation of feeling like shit; the effect of small children is that they use declarative sentences and then look at your face with an expression that says, ‘you will never do enough for the people you love’; i can feel the universe expanding and it feels like no one is trying hard enough the effect of this is an extremely shitty sensation of being the only person alive; i have been alone for a very long time it will take an extreme person to make me feel less alone the effect of being alone for a very long time is that i have been thinking very hard and learning about mortality, loneliness, people, society, and love; i am afraid that i am not learning fast enough; i can feel the universe expanding and it feels like no one has ever tried hard enough; when i cried in your room it was the effect of an extremely distinct sensation that ‘i am the only person alive,’ ‘i have not learned enough,’ and ‘i can feel the universe expanding and making things be further apart and it feels like a declarative sentence whose message is that we must try harder

...one had to expect very little—almost nothing—from life, Aaron knew, one had to be grateful, not always trying to seize the days like some maniac of living, but to give oneself up, be seized by the days, the months and years, be taken up in the froth of sun and moon, some pale and smoothie-ed river-cloud of life, a long, drawn-out, gray sort of enlightenment, so that when it was time to die, one did not scream swear words and knock things down, did not make a scene, but went easily with understanding and tact, and quietly, in a lightly pummeled way, having been consoled–having allowed to be consoled–by the soft, generous, worthlessness of it all, having allowed to be massaged by the daily beating of life, instead of just beaten.

Though if love was an animal, Garret knew, it would probably be the Loch Ness Monster. If it didn’t exist, that didn’t matter. People made models of it, put it in the water, and took photos. The hoax of it was good enough. The idea of it. Though some people feared it, wished it would just go away, had their lives insured against being eaten alive by it.

My wife's the reason anything gets done, She nudges me toward promise by degrees. She is a perfect symphony of one, Our son is her most beautiful reprise. We chase the melodies that seem to find us Until they're finished songs and start to play When senseless acts of tragedy remind us That nothing here is promised, not one day. This show is proof that history remembers We live through times when hate and fear seem stronger. We rise and fall and light from dying embers Remembrances that hope and love last longer. And love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love cannot be killed or swept aside. I sing Vanessa’s symphony, Eliza tells her story Now fill the world with music, love and pride.

I love you. She told him in the way she held him close; in the way her mouth met his; in how her hands trailed across his skin, mapping him, memorising every detail of what it was to be with him, his scars under her fingers. I love you. I love you. She told him in the way she let go of herself and held on to him instead. With every beat of her heart. I love you. I will always love you. I will always take care of you.

A world without right or wrong was a world that did not want itself, anything other than itself, or anything not those two things, but that still wanted something. A world without right or wrong invited you over, complained about you, and gave you cookies. Don't leave, it said, and gave you a vegan cookie. It avoided eye contact, but touched your knee sometimes. It was the world without right or wrong. It didn't have any meaning. It just wanted a little meaning.

We rose from our chairs and bowed at each other, Japanese-style. The eight of them sat on the opposite side of the table to us, leaving the middle chair empty. All looking at us, no-one speaking a word. A long minute later, a very short, rather elderly lady – also dressed in funereal black – waddled in and seated herself in the empty chair in the middle of the row, directly facing us. She smiled; well, she attempted to twist her mouth. Too much effort. Her expression reverted to seriousness. Lin, sitting next to her, now spoke and introduced her as the Managing Director. She didn’t speak any English. Nor, it transpired, did any of the others – or if they did, we would never know, as either they weren’t brave enough to try or were inhibited by the business hierarchy. A scene that could have come out of Kafka.

What I will tell you, son of sons, is this: shortly, if not already, you will begin noticing the blackness inside us all. You will develop black secrets and commit black actions. You will be shocked at the insensitivities and transgressions you are capable of, yet you will be unable to stop them. And by the time you are thirty, your friends will all have black secrets, too, but it will be years before you learn exactly *what* their black secrets are. Life at that point will become like throwing a Frisbee in a graveyard; much of the pleasure of your dealings with your friends will stem from the contrast between your sparkling youth and the ink you now know lies at your feet. Later, as you get to be my age, you will see your friends begin to die, to lose their memories, to see their skins turn wrinkled and sick. You will see the effects of dark secrets making themslves know - via their minds and bodies and via the stories your friends - yes, Harmony, Gaia, Mei-lin, Davidson, and the rest - will begin telling you at three-thirty in the morning as you put iodine on their bruises, arrange for tetanus shots, dial 911, and listen to them cry. The only payback for all of this - for the conversion of their once-young hearts into tar - will be that you will love your friends more, even though they have made you see the universe as an emptier and scarier place - and they will love you more, too.

I am not a man who often expresses is emotions, Miss Linton." "You don't say?" "But I must admit I was... somewhat concerned for you." I had to work hard to keep a smile from my face." "Somewhat concerned? Dear God, really?" Abruptly, he turned to me, his eyes blazing with cold fire. "Dammit! Do not joke, Miss Linton!" I looked up at him, the picture of innocence drawn by a five-year-old with absolutely no artistic talent. "I wouldn't dare!" Stepping towards me, he reached out, until one of his hands gently touched my cheek. "I..." He swallowed, and tried again. "I might be slightly... irrationally infatuated with you." Warmth spread deep inside me. And on my face, a grin did. "Irrationally infatuated? Dear me!" His jaw clenched. "All right, all right! I may even have certain... impulses towards you that border on caring about you." "You don't say?" I raised an eyebrow at him. "Well, I am so glad to hear that you feel a certain amount of friendship towards me." His dark gaze pierced me accusingly. But I was enjoying this far too much to stop. I wouldn't make it easy for him. "Friendship is not the right word, Miss Linton," he bit out between clenched teeth, every word like a shard of burning ice. "My impulses towards you... they might go slightly beyond the platonic." "Oh, so they are Aristotelian?" "Mr Lin-" He swallowed, hard. "I mean Miss Linton, we are not discussing philosophy here!" I batted my eyelashes at him. "Indeed? Then pray tell, what are we discussing?" "I... I..." "You can say it, you know," I told him. "The word isn't poisonous." "I... have feelings towards you." "Clearly. I knew that from the first day from the way you shouted at me and pelted me with threats." "Not those kinds of feelings!" "What kind, then?" "I feel... affection towards you." "You're nearly there," I encouraged him, my smile widening. "Just four little letters. The word starts with L. Go on. You can do it." "You're enjoying this, Miss Linton, aren't you?" "Very much so." "Oh, to hell with it!"... His mouth took mine in a fast, fierce, bruising kiss... Finally he broke away, and with the remnants of his breath whispered: "I love you!