Sometimes I am afraid for people like you who have to know things. Your kind will dig and hunt and worry at it until one day you will find what is hidden, waiting for you.
Isobelle CarmodyImpatience is not the least of your faults, Malik, it is a kind of greed and someday it may see you undone.
Isobelle CarmodyThe mirror had broken into millions of pieces and the wind blew them all over the world. If a person got a speck in their eye, the person would only see the ugly side of things from then on, but if a piece got in their blood and it reached their heart, it would freeze into a solid block of ice and they couldn't feel anything anymore
Isobelle CarmodyShort stories do not say this happened and this happened and this happened. They are a microcosm and a magnification rather than a linear progression.
Isobelle CarmodyLong fiction is wonderful and you can lose yourself in it as a reader and as a writer, but short stories don't allow the same kind of immersion. Often the best stories hold you back and make you witness them. This may be one of the reasons some people reject the form. That and the fact that they are harder work to read. A story will not let you get comfortable and settle in. It is like a stool that is so small that you must always be aware of sitting.
Isobelle Carmody