“ The demons are not easily dispatched, instead attaching themselves to otherwise beautiful things, a favorite food or a love note left for you, to see how you react when they rear up. Thomm Quackenbush
“ The stars were so simple when she was a kid, a smattering of glowing dust circling the Earth. She did not then know that each was a sun, most considerably more massive than the daylight one she knew. Thomm Quackenbush
“ Adolescence impelled her eyes to stay at an even keel, to deal with the ground before flickering to the heavens. Night became not dotted with fairy clouds of celestial brilliance, but simply the time… Thomm Quackenbush
“ He seemed like the sort to have a vast arsenal of smirks, shaped over a decade of nonverbal conversation. Thomm Quackenbush
“ If you do not need something that it is still useful, give it to someone who will appreciate it before you douse it in lighter fluid in hopes Santa Odin will put a new one under your Yule tree. Thomm Quackenbush
“ Isn’t Santa just a stand in for the society that has locked them up for formative years? Something that watches and judges, telling them that they got what they deserved based on their behavior? Surel… Thomm Quackenbush
“ They tell me how they are not scared to die, but they are terrified of the lives circumstance forces them to lead. Thomm Quackenbush
“ Even putting aside the culturally indoctrinated terror that someone in America will assume that two men engage in sodomy behind barely closed doors, there simply isn't an elegant way of asking someone… Thomm Quackenbush
“ American culture enforces such rigid gender roles for male friendships that they are gay unless they materially resemble a beer commercial. Thomm Quackenbush
“ She harbored the childhood presumption that the truly scary things could only find her in the night. Thomm Quackenbush
“ Having in our childhood felt primal awe for the spectacle of the holiday, we are told to age into feeling sullen and resentful. You are supposed to proclaim Santa dead like preadolescent Nietzsches an… Thomm Quackenbush
“ I missed you,” she cried into him. Standing on top of the snow gave him an additional few inches on her and she rested her head against his chest. She could hear nothing within, just her own heartbeat… Thomm Quackenbush
“ Keep to the 'I-statements' and discuss your feelings, she lectured herself. I think, I feel. Don't be accusatory. Don't tell him that he is an insecure prick who should back off before you deck him. I… Thomm Quackenbush
“ To have the experience I did as a child, I would have to be a physically different being, one with whom I share nearly nothing. On a cellular level, aside from the neurons of my cerebral cortex and a… Thomm Quackenbush
“ I don’t think very many people get converted by someone telling them they are terrible. No one I’d want to rub shoulders with in Heaven, anyway. Thomm Quackenbush
“ The nature of God's plan can be difficult to fathom when you are toiling in some small corner of it, but it is glorious from above, if you allow yourself the perspective. Thomm Quackenbush
“ The dark places will not be instinctively frightening, true, but isn’t it better that children fear boogeymen than pedophiles? Isn’t it better that libraries are filled to the brim with stories and no… Thomm Quackenbush
“ Were genuine aliens to find us… the chances were fairly good they would appear in a form beyond reckoning, shaped by the requirements of their environment. It was only for the convenience of the costu… Thomm Quackenbush
“ I don’t much care for all this talk of God washing away all my dirt. I like a bit of grit around the edges. It gives me character and does a passable job of faking depth, from a distance. Thomm Quackenbush
