The collection / 43 fragments

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Passages, proverbs, and questions carried across the ages.

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01c. 1980 AD

Most people who watch a fight think it's all about the muscle: hitting harder, moving faster. And, yeah, sometimes it looked that way. But telling somebody that you won a fight by hitting the other person harder and more often was like telling somebody that the way you kept from drowning was by moving your arms and legs.

Kameron Hurley / quote

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02c. 1980 AD

What were all of them, really, but bits of something else? Bits of stars?

Kameron Hurley / quote

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03c. 1980 AD

Ahmed turned, and leaned into him. Kissed him on the mouth again.“I’m pretty fucked up,” Eshe said.“It’s a good thing I’m perfect, then.

Kameron Hurley / quote

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04c. 1980 AD

And for the first time, I pity her, because when she says love, I think she really means it. For her, this is love. This is what she does to someone she loves. And I wonder if I am any better, because this is what I did to Zan all those rotations ago. I seduced her until she loved me with all her heart, and when it came time to do what needed to be done, I was willing to sacrifice that love, but she was not.

Kameron Hurley / quote

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05c. 1980 AD

The motto above the lintel of the main entrance was in the raised script of the prayer language: My life for a thousand.She remembered swearing an oath with that at its core: My life for yours, for ours, for Nasheen. My life for a thousand.

Kameron Hurley / quote

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06c. 1980 AD

Systems of racism and sexism and oppression are not systems we choose, but they are ones we inherit and are responsible for perpetuating, or not. When I hear so-and-so was "a product of his/her time" as an excuse for bigoted behavior, I remind folks that there have always been people in every time who did not agree with the bigoted systems they were born into and who actively fought them. The question is, which are we?

Kameron Hurley / quote

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07c. 1980 AD

I'd internalized an astonishing amount of misogyny growing up that I didn't even recognize until my early twenties.

Kameron Hurley / quote

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08c. 1980 AD

It was strange how you didn’t realise how much you loved a place until you had lost it completely.

Kameron Hurley / quote

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09c. 1980 AD

There was a fine line between madness and intelligence.

Kameron Hurley / quote

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10c. 1980 AD

They'd pay attention to me less. They'd judge me by gender, by looks, by weight before anything else. I automatically started every interaction at a disadvantage.

Kameron Hurley / quote

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11c. 1980 AD

It was the secret to winning any contest, he said, in life or in the boxing ring – you just had to get up more than you fell down.

Kameron Hurley / quote

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12c. 1980 AD

We all fight monsters, she knew. There was no shame in losing.

Kameron Hurley / quote

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13c. 1980 AD

You started caring about somebody, you did stupid things.

Kameron Hurley / quote

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14c. 1980 AD

It all came apart once you started caring for something outside yourself.

Kameron Hurley / quote

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15c. 1980 AD

Every time Nyx thought she’d gotten out of the business of killing boys, she shot another one.

Kameron Hurley / quote

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16c. 1980 AD

Because until you know what you want to be, other people are just going to keep trying to make you into something useful for them.

Kameron Hurley / quote

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17c. 1980 AD

Nobody really knows what I am,” Nyx said. “Not until I put a bullet in their head.

Kameron Hurley / quote

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18c. 1980 AD

Nyx had killed a lot of people. She'd let even more die through neglect. Rhys was just one more. I'm the same person, aren't I? she thought. She had burned herself up, only to come out the other side exactly the same.Taite's signal would get out, Nyx knew. It would be soon enough to save *her*. But it would not be soon enough for Rhys. Nyx hardened her jaw. Her hands and feet were still tied. They'd stripped her of her most obvious weapons. She could just wait this out.She saw Rhys register that. But there was no shock. Just resignation. He knew her for what she was. Butcher. Monster.The same old monster.

Kameron Hurley / quote

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19c. 1980 AD

Good luck to you," he said, and she remembered how he had looked at her as she pinned Yah Tayyib, as if she was some kind of monster.Maybe she was.

Kameron Hurley / quote

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