It is true that I can trip over anything and nothing โ a speck of dust, a patch of sunlight, an idea. I move through life like a person with one eye, through a landscape that looks flat, but is really tricked out with hidden depths and shallows. It didnโt use to be so, but no matter. I navigate the world well enough in my own way.
Franny BillingsleyDespite her cough, Rose was in unusually good spirits. That was irritating. If Iโm to trade my life for Roseโs, Iโd appreciate her exhibiting a touch of melancholy. Also acceptable would be despair.
Franny BillingsleyThere are no preconditions for jealousy. You don't have to be right, you don't have to be reasonable. Take Othello. He was neither right nor reasonable, and Desdemona ended up dead. I wouldn't mind Leanne ending up dead. I wouldn't mind exploding her into fireworks of peacock and pearl.
Franny BillingsleyImagine a world without shadows. You cannot touch a shadow, but a world without them is a hard world, and flat.
Franny BillingsleyLife and stories are alike in one way: They are full of hollows. The king and queen have no children: They have a child hollow. The girl has a wicked stepmother: She has a mother hollow. In a story, a baby comes along to fill the child hollow. But in life, the hollows continue empty.
Franny Billingsley