The void is my friend.
She sits on a chair and stares out at the greyness, at the studio at the bottom of the garden. She tries to ignore the stone in her abdomen, and though it has begun to move, to ripple at times, she cannot think of it as anything other than something inanimate. A heaviness that will sink her to the bottom of the ocean. Nothing can live in this environment, the acidic sorrow inside her.
page 104
There is a loneliness that can be rocked. Arms crossed, knees drawn up; holding, holding on, this motion, unlike a ship’s, smooths and contains the rocker. It’s an inside kind – wrapped tight like skin. Then there is a loneliness that roams. No rocking can hold it down. It is alive, on its own. A dry and spreading thing that makes the sound of one’s own feet going seem to come from a far-off place.
page 315
[..] language is so central to our understanding of each other that when we encounter language that doesn’t actually reflect the thoughts, ideas, or communicative intent of another person, it’s difficult not to imagine some humanlike mind behind it.
page 7, Chapter 1: An Introduction to AI Hype, The AI Con by Emily M. Bender & Alex Hanna
He braces his hands on the edges of the sink and looks at his reflection, surprised to see that he looks normal, almost calm. He feels as if he’s been turned inside out, as if he just learned that a part of his heart is on the outside of his body, in the possession of somebody else entirely.
page 97, Andy
Necessities helped people survive, but joyful excess gave them life.
page 90