Gretel and the Dark

Yes, life is hard,” whispers Erika, “but knowing about other people, other civilisations, other ways of living, other places – that’s your escape route, a magical journey. Once you know about these things, no matter what happens, your mind can create stories to take you anywhere you want to go.

Books; I repeat, for they've not only been a solace during the long years but also provided the keys to understanding other people's ideas and achievements, their hopes and fears, quirks and foibles, their dreams.....their demons

Why do you assume I'm human? I wasn't born; I was created just like this. First I was an idea. Then I came into being, charged with a very important task. I've come to find the monster.

People often lose their names. Names fall into holes or get eaten by wild animals. Sometimes they’re carried away by the wind.

...soon I shall go from here and everything that I have seen or heard, felt, smelled, tasted, enjoyed, loved, will be extinguished and forgotten. There will be nothing left of me but a number on some ledger. And so, I give the a Earth my memories.

At least we've still got each other.' Daniel squeezes my hand. I hadn't noticed he was holding it. 'We'll never be parted.' 'If you won't ever forsake me,' I say, comforted a little by realizing I can still remember Greet's stories, 'I won't forsake you.

Older, but no wiser. Alas, our dreams continue to haunt us.

All they see is madness. It’s the same with the other men. They see my situation, not me.

I’d give you – if I thought one day you might return my feelings …

If it were possible to create objects to meet one’s deepest longings then nobody would need God.

One way or another, we’re all prisoners.

You should never judge a person solely by the evidence of your eyes.

I’m never going to do what everyone else does. Never.

It was not an easy thing, for to name something established dominion over it. As with an infant, it shaped and moulded with the namer's expectations that which was named. It set apart. It emphasized human aloneness.

...and the worse the memory, the stronger its stranglehold on the present.

Love will not come to me again. I’ll vegetate like a plant in a cellar, without light.

Fear of dying brings humans the greatest pain. Death is implicit in every form of joy. Of course, it also brings the end of pain.

All the soul cares about is experiencing every variety of pain this world can offer. Souls are so greedy for pain they don't care whether the body is natural or man-made. In a natural body it can feel the pain. In a fabricated one it observes the effects.