The prophets were given the secrets of the universe, but I am only seeking my own.

—Burhan Sönmez (trans. by Alexander Dawe), “Rome, Italy, 1966”

Each day she woke, bracing herself for the smaller disasters of dying…

—Amanda Gunn, “Shalimar”

I do not like speaking about him in the past tense, but I suppose it is a way of coming to terms with the catastrophe.

—Edward Hirsch, “In Memoriam: Adam Zagajewski”

Afterwards, black ants / returned again / to their row of life in the grass

— Antonia Pozzi (trans. by Amy Newman), “God of the Wild”

Maybe there’s much to celebrate about a room full of young people who are aware of the demands love makes, who don’t buy the lacy lies we tell on Valentine’s Day or after a hit of ecstasy.

— Eric LeMay, “Star-Crossed Something-or-Others”

He’s telling you what he’s doing: What I’m telling you are true, true stories—distressingly true stories that I want you to believe—but the method that I’m using to make you believe in the stories is a trick.

—Interview with Carole Angier, author of Speak, Silence: In Search of W. G. Sebald