I suppose there was never a reason for tearing down a cabin or scrapping a stopped automobile, if you had all those acres. - Jonathan Lethem

There is nothing Tourettic about the New York City subways.

…Carlotta hovered over us as we devoured her meatballs, running her floury fingers over the backs of our chairs, then gently touching our heads, the napes of our necks. We pretended not to notice, ashamed in front of one another and ourselves to show that we drank in her nurturance as eagerly as her meat sauce.

Like other names I censored lately, this was a vote against invoking monsters, against etching their reality into the air.