The darkness inside your head is something your imagination fills with stories that have nothing to do with the real darkness around you.

All the lessons you need to learn in life, he said, will be taught to you by your enemy.

The light, the sky, the water, they were all things you looked *through* during the day. At night, they were things you looked *into*. You looked *into* the stars, you looked *into* dark rollers and the surprising platinum flash of their caps.

[I]n communism, you'd threaten a dog into compliance, while in capitalism, obedience is obtained through bribes.

The next day, she was silent. For breakfast, she murdered an onion and served it raw.

The death of dictator Kim Jong-Il has cast all eyes on North Korea, a country without literature or freedom or truth.

But people do things to survive, and then after they survive, they can't live with what they've done.