You get through it, you just never get over it

You can be strapped to the most stable chair and still feel the world give way beneath you.

Or in other words, it's the substance you've got when you start that determines the outcome.

Saying goodbye to the people you love isn't easy

Nathaniel closes his eyes and jumps, his arms glued to his sides like that fly's. He doesn't try to break his fall, just hits hard, because it hurts less than everything else.

Fiction is like that, once it is released into the world: contagious, persistent. Like the contents of Pandora's box, a story that's freely given can't be contained anymore. It becomes infectious, spreading from the person who created it to the person who listens, and passes it on.

If God wanted us to act on instinct, we wouldn't have the power of reason.