Red Sister

Your death has not been waiting for your arrival at the appointed hour: it has, for all the years of your life, been racing towards you with the fierce velocity of time’s arrow. It cannot be evaded, it cannot be bargained with, deflected or placated. All that is given to you is the choice: meet it with open eyes and peace in your heart, go gentle to your reward. Or burn bright, take up arms, and fight the bitch.

she knew enough to know it didn’t matter how fast you went if they knew where to find you.

‘Words are steps along a path: the important thing is to get where you’re going. You can play by all manner of rules, step-on-a-crack-break-your-back, but you’ll get there quicker if you pick the most certain route.’

He smiled but with more worry in it than joy, as if the world made no more sense and offered no more comfort to bigs than littles.

The hardest lesson I ever learned was that every bad thing you see a friend do to someone else they will some day do to you.