Falling Man

The others exist only to the degree that they fill the role we have designed for them. This is their function as others. Those who will die have no claim to their lives outside the useful fact of their dying.

Ощущение не развеялось, витает где-то рядом, в недалеком прошлом: распахнулись их тела, а вместе с телами вырвалось на свободу время...

Jack was an architect, an artist, a sad man, she thought, for much of his life, and it was the kind of sadness that yearns for something intangible and vast, the one solace that might dissolve his paltry misfortune.

Maybe he was a terrorist but he was one of ours, she thought, and the thought chilled her, shamed her-one of ours, which meant godless, Western, white.

How is it possible that he was about to become someone of clear and distinct definition, husband and father, finally, occupying a room in three dimensions in the manner of his parents?

She listened to what he said and let him know she was listening, mind and body, because listening is what would save them this time, keep them from falling into distortion and rancor.

People I know, they read poetry to ease the shock and pain, give them a kind of space, something beautiful in language,” she said, “to bring comfort or composure.

He stood and looked and felt something so lonely he could touch it with his hand.

Russian whose accent he found reassuring because these are serious people who place weight on every word

Мать курила на манер женщин сороковых годов, героинь гангстерских боевиков, — нервно и жадно, в монохромном изображении.

Она замечала: в корни ее волос начинает просачиваться седина. Не собиралась пачкать ее краской, скрывать. Бог, думала она. Что значит — произносить это слово? Может быть, с Богом рождаешься? Если никогда не слышал этого слова и не видел обрядов, чувствуешь ли живой дух внутри себя, в энцефалограмме или биении сердца?

Если твой ребенок считает тебя в чем-то виновным, то ты виновен, даже если ребенок ошибается.

То религия, а то Бог. Лианне хотелось быть неверующей. Неверие — путь к ясности мышления и целей. Или неверие — тоже суеверие, только другого рода?