The Son

But there is always a point where things can no longer be put off, where you can’t be weak one more day and promise yourself that tomorrow, tomorrow you will start that other life.

Love surrounds you like steam in the shower. You can’t see the individual drops, but you get warm. And wet. And clean.

You can discover new things by changing your perspective and your location

Suddenly he realised why so many of the inmates went to the young man to talk. It was the silence. The beckoning vacuum of someone who simply listens without reaction or judgement. Who extracts your words and your secrets from you without doing anything at all.

We don’t punish people because they are evil, but because they make bad choices, choices that are bad for the herd. Morality isn’t heaven-sent or eternal, just a set of rules that benefit the herd.

I’m thinking about how lucky I am,” he said. “Because I have you. Because I have

Sometimes we’re wrong when we think that we know the truth about our parents.

A son’s responsibility isn’t to be like his father, but to be better than him.

What determined the outcome of a life? A series of random events you had no control over, or did some cosmic gravity pull everything in the direction it was predestined to go?

you should never postpone your pleasures, that there was no guarantee that you would live another day.

What we humans think we know is nothing compared to what we need to believe to numb the fear and pain.

Love's the sum total of all the little things you can never really put your finger on. Love surrounds you like steam in the shower. You can't see the individual drops but you get warm.

Well, religion was like fire insurance; you never really thought you’d need it, so when people said that the boy was prepared to take your sins upon himself and didn’t want anything in return, why not say yes to some peace of mind?

They had once sworn to tell each other everything, absolutely everything, and after they had done that, after they had tested how much truth the other could tolerate, their stories had become the walls and the roof that held their home together.

To err is human, to forgive is divine.

We’re probably more like our parents than we’d like to believe.

Sometimes we’re wrong when we think that we know the truth about our parents. Perhaps they weren’t weak. Perhaps something happened to give you the wrong impression. What if they were strong? What if they were willing to leave behind a disgraced name, allow themselves to be stripped of all honour, take the blame, to save the ones they loved? And if they were that strong, perhaps you’re strong, too.

Pele, kako... Kako znaš da li te neko voli?" "Ma naprosto znaš. To ti je zbir svih onih sitnica koje ne možeš da izdvojiš pojedinačno. Vidiš, ljubav ti je kao topao tuš. Ne vidiš pojedinače kapljice ali te one svejedno greju. Kvase. I čiste.

Ne kažnjavamo mi druge zato što su zli, već zato što prave pogrešan izbor, izbor pogrešan za čopor. Moral nije ništa bogom dano ili večno, već samo skup pravila nužan za dobrobir čopora.

innocence walks hand-in-hand with ignorance. How insight never clarifies, only complicates.

had kicked the chair away from underneath him. That’s why he clawed his own neck

buildings on the riverbank. He took the last hundred-krone notes and put them in his money belt. He had heard that in St. Petersburg

Simon closed his eyes again. He nodded slowly. “So we’re slaves to love. And who we’re given to love, that’s a lottery too. Is that what you’re saying?” “It’s brutal, but that’s how it is,” Sissel declared. “And the gods laugh,” Simon said.

were done, then it was payback time. She had

Svojevremeno su se zakleli da će jedno drugome uvek reći sve, baš sve, a posle toga, nakon što su isprobali koliko ovo drugo istine može podneti, te priče su postale zid i krov od kojih je sazdan njihov dom

That everything apart from death, everything he preached about, was nothing but a defence people had created against their fear of death. And yet none of what he used to believe meant anything at all. What we humans think we know is nothing compared to what we need to believe to numb the fear and pain.

Nipošto!", rekla je kroz smeh. "Možeš da me slikaš." Odmahnuo je glavom. "Više volim glas." "Kako to?" ... "Izgled se menja, ali glas je trajniji.