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

I am a champion standing over the shadow of my former self.

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

Had she never been hungry enough to eat a flower? Did she not know that you could eat daisies, daylilies, pansies, and marigolds? That hungry enough, a person could consume the bright faces of violas, even the stems of dandelions and the bitter hips of roses?

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

Orphans are the only ones who get to choose their fathers, and they love them twice as much.

I'd known that the visit would be highly scripted and that genuine interactions with citizens wouldn't be possible, since it's illegal for them to speak with foreigners. Still, I'd thought I'd had a unique look at North Korea, only to discover I was wrong.