Lauren Beukes Quotes

The world is condensing, attention spans narrowing to tiny screens, and there are people who are wittier and smarter, who know how to write for those nanospaces.

But I really wanted to believe that there were these magic celestial bodies that would direct my life, tell me what to do, and it turns out it's not stars, it's some bits of screwy DNA. I'm just meat with faulty programming.

She was always bad cop in the family, setting rules and boundaries as if parenting wasn’t the worst game of improve ever.

Time heals all wounds. Wounds clot, eventually. The seams knit together.

and then no one was flying anywhere. You can’t imagine how much the world can change in six months.

Everyone lives three versions of themselves; a public life, a private life and a secret life. Watch any kid and how he acts with his friends at school. Ask his momma what he’s like at home. Try and get her to believe the same kid robbed the corner store. “Not my boy,” she’ll say and she’s right. Because her boy wouldn’t do that. But we are different things to different people in different contexts.

Fear makes you ugly.

You think fear eats up your capacity for wonder, but the awe cuts through her dulled and dimmed mind. Almost a religious experience.

Affectionate violence. For when a hug just won't do.

This is the Detroit I want to write about," he says, feeling urbane as fuck. "Tattoo seances and nutty street art and text-message millionaires. People don't even know this is happening. Of course we know it's happening, shithead," Anorexic Thor says. "You don't know it's happening.

Everyone lives three versions of themselves; a public life, a private life and a secret life. Watch any kid and how he acts with his friends at school. Ask his momma what he’s like at home. Try and get her to believe the same kid robbed the corner store. ‘Not my boy,’ she’ll say and she’s right. Because her boy wouldn’t do that. But we are different things to different people in different contexts.

The axles of corruption are greased with donut glaze.

Fresh starts don't come with expired relationships attached.

Do not settle. Never fucking settle.

An empty house feels a certain way. Ripe with absence.