Michael David Lukas · 304 pages
Rating: (2.8K votes)
“She hadn't lied. She hadn't betrayed anyone's trust; still, she felt she had done something wrong. Or rather, she had not yet done the right thing. Was there a difference between these two sins?”
― Michael David Lukas, quote from The Oracle of Stamboul
“With every choice, even the choice of inactivity, we must shut the door to a host of alternate futures. Each step we take along the path of fate represents a narrowing of potential, the death of a parallel world. The path of fate was more like a tunnel, and it was constricting about her with ever step she took.”
― Michael David Lukas, quote from The Oracle of Stamboul
“You are a very special child," the old handmaid said, stroking Eleonora's hair. "You know that don't you?"
Eleonora mumbled a yes.
"You know you are special, but I think that you aren't sure how."
She nodded. That was, indeed, the crux of it.”
― Michael David Lukas, quote from The Oracle of Stamboul
“A slippery fish, flashing scales in the water and a noble fighter on the line, but dull as lead at the bottom of the boat.”
― Michael David Lukas, quote from The Oracle of Stamboul
“This divergence of experience was not a stumbling block to conversation; indeed, it was what made the conversation interesting.”
― Michael David Lukas, quote from The Oracle of Stamboul
Michael David Lukas
Born place: in Berkeley, CA, The United States
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“And I asked myself about the present: how wide it was, how deep it was, how much was mine to keep.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, quote from Slaughterhouse-five: The Children's Crusade, A Duty-dance with Death
“We should have just killed him, that's a lesson, don't get creative with revenge”
― China Miéville, quote from Kraken
“He pauses. “Maybe that letter was left for you.”
“No, she was pretty pissed that I wrote back.”
Now he hesitates. “I don’t mean that she left the letter for you.”
It takes me a second to figure out his tone. “Rev, if you start preaching at me, I’m going in the house.”
“I’m not preaching.”
No, he’s not. Yet.
He still has that old Bible I found him clutching in my closet. It was his mother’s. He’s read it about twenty times. He’ll debate theology with anyone who’s interested—and I’m not on that list. Geoff and Kristin used to take him to church, but he said he didn’t like that he couldn’t live by his own interpretation.
What he didn’t say was that looking up at a man in a pulpit reminded him too much of his father.
Rev doesn’t walk around quoting Bible verses or anything—usually—but his faith is rock solid. I once asked him how he can believe in a providential god when he barely survived living with his father.
He looked at me and said, “Because I did survive.”
And there’s no arguing that.”
― Brigid Kemmerer, quote from Letters to the Lost
“If someone isn't what others want them to be, the others become angry. Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.”
― Paulo Coelho, quote from Alkimist
“Machines were the ideal metaphor for the central pornographic fantasy of the nineteenth century, rape followed by gratitude.”
― Robert Hughes, quote from The Shock of the New
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