If you look hard enough, chaos turns into order the way letters turn into words.

This affliction--hope--is so cruel and stubborn, I believe it will kill me

Long time I been on my own, but now really I'm alone. I survive the killing, the starving, all the hate of the Khmer Rouge, but I think maybe now I will die of this, of broken heart.

When I have run out of words to copy, I look out the window at this strange place called India. Inside the train, the people around me are snoring. I don't understand how they can close their eyes when there is so much to see.

Then I placed the blade next to the skin on my palm. A tingle arched across my scalp. The floor tipped up at me and my body spilled away. Then I was on the ceiling looking down, waiting to see what would happen next.

Look. I have a strategy. Why expect anything? If you don’t expect anything, you don’t get disappointed.

A man who doles out sweets, and slaps, with the same hand.