The Arsonist

She would tell me to never change for anyone, because the people you change for are the people who control you.

The worst crime you can do to yourself is to forget why you chose the path you're on, but keep walking down it anyway.

Ava’s Mum: – We are not like them, Ava. […] We have to be ready to fight, and when the enemy gets you, one day, you show them what I taught you. When they lock you in the darkness, become an arsonist. When they put you under house arrest, or defile your name in public, or make you live beneath the rules that will suffocate you, become an arsonist. When they put a pistol in your hand and make you shoot your best friend, and when they throw you in a death camp, when you see everyone around you get sick from the poison they’re feeding them, light a fire that will destroy them. A fire they won’t forget the next time they try to do it to someone else.

Georg Winkler: – You take a lesson from Ava, […]. You want to know how to navigate life? Don’t live and die by the beliefs you had when you were young. Everything changes, that’s what you learn when you’ve lived as long as I have. The worst crime you can do to yourself is to forget why you chose the path you’re on, but keep walking down it anyway.

Molly: – You killed people. […] You made them disappear, and didn’t even let the families hold funerals. Heinrich Werner: – That was the machine, not me. Molly: – You were part of the machine.

Ava: – Gentle. I was never taught to be gentle. When I sang, I did so loudly. When I played sports, I had to win, otherwise what was the point? My mother would never tell me to quiet myself for a boy. She would tell me to never change for anyone, because the people you change for are the people who control you.

Grief is a kind of war, I think now. Loss is like a bullet. A person can only take so much.