A Sunny Place for Shady People

I shall plunge down into the abysmal horror of madness and death—or I shall walk upon the dawn.

It's easy to have ethics when what you love is not in danger.

El cuerpo no es un castigo: el castigo es que se hable tanto de él hasta que duele tenerlo. SONIA BUDASSI, Animales de compañía

Of course not, I thought. It's your fault for wanting to be mothers.

Era gringa, los gringos son así. No saben nada del mundo, son incapaces de enterarse. No se les ocurre mirar un mapa.

La cantidad de sufrimiento que una persona es capaz de soportar cuando tiene prejuicios frente a las drogas psiquiátricas es algo que no deja de sorprenderme.

Did you know that female hyenas have dicks too?" I asked. "Oh no, not the hyenas again." In the gloom, I heard his curiosity in spite of the complaint, and I kept going. "Well, they have a penis-shaped clitoris that mimics a dick. They even have a false scrotum." "Balls?" "Yep." "Hyenas are trans." "Don't even think about saying that outside this room.

It's so easy to disappear, I thought. All you need is determination, and not even that much of it, plus someone you can trust and a little money.

Qué diferencia había entre una mano fantasma y los peligros de la interperie real, me preguntaba yo.

No hay manera de explicar cómo se siente llevar puesto un vestido maravilloso. Todo cambia. La expresión, la postura. (...) Es como dejar caer sobre el cuerpo un elixir mágico, es morder la manzana, es abrir los ojos a un mundo posible. Desprecio a la gente que no entiende la moda. No saben lo que es sentir la seda, no saben lo que es darse vuelta y mirar sobre el hombro y que nuestra cara, la de todos los días, sea otra, los labios brillantes, los ojos misteriosos, una sombra bajo el pómulo que antes no estaba allí.

Pero nada podía durar, no estaba hecho para eso, Dizz era cobre, al cobre se le desvanece lo dorado con el tiempo y deja manchas verdosas en la piel; eso fue nuestro tiempo juntos, solo que las manchas no se iban de mi piel como pasa con los anillos de cobre. No me las podía sacar.

Los recuerdos nunca llegan en los momentos predecibles, son como esos gatos que duermen al sol tranquilos, pero que, cuando uno se atreve a acariciarles la panza, lanzan un rasjuño directo a los ojos.

Todas las leyendas de varones transformados en animales son por competencia. La mayoría. A las mujeres nomás se las condena. Lo mismo pasa con las flores. Hay muchas flores que alguna vez fueron mujeres. La flor del ceibo, por ejemplo. Todos conocen la historia de Anahí. La quemaron. A los hombres nunca los queman.

–La semana pasada me llamó, dice que no se puede vivir en Montevideo en invierno, que hace un frío de cagarse.

Sites that had been host to extraordinary suffering will eventually be either burned to the ground or turned into temples. CORMAC MCCARTHY

...of course those fridges don't get cold: they're more like coffins that way. But coffins are also just fancy boxes made to lock away what we need to forget in order to move on.

You really know how to play dumb, just like your dad." "It's called survival, Mom. Leave me alone.

Positive thinking is perverse, same as goodwill.

...I never thought that her ignorance meant she was a fraud. She was a gringa: that's how they are. They don't know anything about the world, they're incapable of figuring things out, they never think to look at a map.

I thought she seemed beyond saving: some people just let themselves go for too long, and one day they wake up crazy and monstrous.

I was afraid of Los Angeles. The neon, the highways, the color of the sunset, the nearness of the desert, the sun so high.

Would I have done the same thing if my family had been threatened? Maybe. It's easy to have ethics when what you love is not in danger.

Paolo has a brother in the United States, and at the neighborhood meetings he goes on and on about how well people live there, what a safe country it is. I don't correct him. As I said, I don't like to argue.

I don't argue anymore, if I ever did. I'm resigned to that worldview they all share. It's a lie, but arguing against a credible lie is a task for titans.