How many people are there left who are neither locked up nor standing guard at the gate? - J. M. Coetzee

How can I accept that disaster has overtaken my life when the world continues to move so tranquilly through its cycles?

My case rests on the rights of desire,’ he says. ‘On the god who makes even the small birds quiver.’

Always, there were stories on TV and in the papers of gangs, killings in bad neighborhoods, predators roaming close. One morning, I peered with Francis into a newspaper box to read a headline about the latest terror and caught in the glass the reflection of our own faces.