“She hasn't forgotten that I once called that thing she does, with the pins, Pinteresque.” — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“I was on the sidewalk, buffering, wondering if it was okay to follow people in real life.” — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“ Roses are like kamikaze love pilots. Roses are like suicide love bombers. ” — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“He had deduced also that I was quirky and promised me that he was too.” — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“Yes, I think he even has a title. He's like son and heir.' I turned her words over in my mind as… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“I couldn't decide what kind of person she was, whether she was one of those insects that look exactly like wasps but… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“Well, then, what's the plan now? You can't stay here forever.' My plan was indeed to stay there forever.” — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“The sensation that had plagued me after graduating, of being on the outside of some mystery, peeking in, returned.” — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“Tokyo was a place you could quite happily exist alone and be self-contained. It seemed to promise that it was better to… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“But you'd hope anyone would feel sympathy if they actually saw someone face to face, pleading for a chance.” — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“Instantly I remembered everything I hated about him. But it was, in a way, comforting to know that he had not changed… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“But I do not know the people I am crying for anymore. I don't let myself sympathise—I think it would be wrong.” — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“We had, I felt, bared small pieces of our symmetrical souls to each other, fast, as if playing one of those breathless… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“Have you ever tried to organise a threesome in real life?' I shook my head. I'd only encountered them in porn, but… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“As I lay, a pink, dreamlike glow seeped into the room, gradually turning a bright, chemical red. The light inched towards the… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“When he wasn't making quirky jokes about his mother like this—it happened more than once—he mainly spoke at me, about his job… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“It is 23.32 p.m. I still believe in symmetry, so this will be the last part. You've reached an end if you… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“Since I've moved here a Chinese takeaway on the main street has ominiously renamed itself from whatever it was before to the… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“I became convinced that I was being watched. Because self was still leaking everywhere, a part of me began to think it… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“I saw her note the way I hovered over the various ethnicities on the form. First the 'white' box, then to the… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“That night I dreamt about the roses laid at the wrong feet—the feet of the nurse. Each bit of the dream was… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“I found it hard to write the bits where the things that were at first surprising or even shocking became normal incrementally… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“At first, sending the confession by real mail had felt like a genius device. I would not have to sit by my… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“I hope when this is done I'll be able to get back into my happy gardening vibe that was so healthy for… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“I also found it hard to accept the Mizuko I'd known in multiple miniatures was one physical person. I suppose it would… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“Begin at the beginning. Know nothing. Tabula rasa. At the same time, part of me wanted to distinguish myself. To let her… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“The city is tricky. The highs are so much higher, but in the lows you drop straight down again to bedrock. It… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“When she did walk, to the bathroom between the chairs and the customers leaning back in them, oblivious to her manoeuvres, the… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“It's hard to explain how an infatuation actually starts. It's a state so all-encompassing that it's almost impossible to remember how it… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“If everything stays the same, it seems possible for someone to come back.” — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“My ability to make up lies on the spot chills me as much as it saves me.” — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“I began to cry but maintained my shouting through it, like a wind through sheets of rain.” — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“I watched us without interest, heard us only faintly, like strangers below my window.” — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“It was to do with the glazed look that always comes over me when faced with somebody who has offended or hurt me and… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“I was on the sidewalk, buffering, wondering if it was okay to follow people in real life.” — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“That night I dreamt about the roses laid at the wrong feet—the feet of the nurse. Each bit of the dream was like a… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“I saw a doctor. I went in case there were any remnants of the summer inside me—sticky, slender fish bones that needed to be… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“I felt the nauseous shiver in my stomach—everything from rage to empathy to morning sickness—that I had grown used to and now thought of… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“A neon-pink 3 flickered and instantly disappeared again into the dark. The sight of it on my own device now made me sick. I… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“I felt my own self-sufficiency, my own Walden Pond, seeping out of me as if I'd sprung a leak. Self soaked into everything around… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“ Roses are like kamikaze love pilots. Roses are like suicide love bombers. ” — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“Waking in the morning, I had to remember grief all over again. It was sunny, a white winter sun, and that made me sad.” — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“But you'd hope anyone would feel sympathy if they actually saw someone face to face, pleading for a chance.” — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
“From watching Silvia, I'd learned that one of the worst things about being ill is that most people find your suffering opaque. With this… — Olivia Sudjic Copy Share Image
