our job was merely to create the noise that seemed to fascinate them.

The Statue of Liberty's gender changed nothing. It was the same here as anywhere: men and their wars.

They're just memories now. Time to write them off.

We listened to them, but it was clear they'd received too much therapy to know the truth.

In the end we had the pieces of the puzzle, but no matter how we put them together, gaps remained, oddly shaped emptinesses mapped by what surrounded them, like countries we couldn't name.

There are some books that reached through the noise of life to grab you by the collar and speak only of the truest things.

Everyone struggles against despair, but it always wins in the end. It has to. It's the thing that lets us say goodbye.