“Aleq sat with him, but Malik didn’t seem to see him. Food appeared on his lap and then was taken away. Aleq reminded him of the way, on bad-weather days, they used to tell each other that if they closed their eyes and opened them again, the sun would be back out.
Finally Malik moved his arms and opened his eyes. His head swayed like they were on a boat.”
-Jim Shepard
“But then there are those who wear their destinies like nooses, whose lives run straight as planks, however they try to twist.”
-Madeline Miller
“The sky was black like the middle of a eye.”
-Souvankham Thammavongsa
“Condense your want into a word, and water will emerge from your mouth like milk.”
-K-Ming Chang
“..the one corner of the throw rug that flipped up like a cowlick…”
-Celeste Ng
“Constitutionalism didn’t burst from the head of James Madison, like Athena from Zeus, simply on account of all the books he’d read. Sure, constitutionalism flew from the pages of those books, but it was also shot from the barrel of a gun.”
-Jill Lepore
“With the help of fear and echoes and winter silences, that dog had a voice like a big bronze gong.”
-Kurt Vonnegut
“For to wish to forget how much you loved someone — and then, to actually forget — can feel, at times, like the slaughter of a beautiful bird who chose, by nothing short of grace, to make a habitat of your heart.”
– Maggie Nelson
“He skitters through the schoolyard like a traitor to childhood.”
-Richard Powers
The Simile Museum 