Olivia Sudjic

“ Roses are like kamikaze love pilots. Roses are like suicide love bombers. ”

— Olivia Sudjic

“I no longer felt I could try to belong with these people.”

— Olivia Sudjic

“I was on the sidewalk, buffering, wondering if it was okay to follow people in real life.”

— Olivia Sudjic

“Email is the scourge of our age,' said Silvia. 'Email and cancer.”

— Olivia Sudjic

“I had one of those flashes—the sea-glass feel of a well-worn phrase.”

— Olivia Sudjic

“She hasn't forgotten that I once called that thing she does, with the pins, Pinteresque.”

— Olivia Sudjic

“I wondered how best to demonstrate that we were kindred spirits.”

— Olivia Sudjic

“I sank back, deeper into the parallel universe I had found.”

— Olivia Sudjic

“Instantly I remembered everything I hated about him. But it was, in a way, comforting to know that he had not changed…

— Olivia Sudjic

“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

“Well, then, what's the plan now? You can't stay here forever.' My plan was indeed to stay there forever.”

— Olivia Sudjic

“The sensation that had plagued me after graduating, of being on the outside of some mystery, peeking in, returned.”

— Olivia Sudjic

“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

“But you'd hope anyone would feel sympathy if they actually saw someone face to face, pleading for a chance.”

— Olivia Sudjic

“To me, it was clear proof of the existence of supersymmetry, the idea that every particle has a partner. She was mine.”

— Olivia Sudjic

“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

“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

“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

“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

“As I lay, a pink, dreamlike glow seeped into the room, gradually turning a bright, chemical red. The light inched towards the…

— Olivia Sudjic

“I was worried that if I told her the story, she would identify with it too much. That her sympathy, however well-meaning,…

— Olivia Sudjic

“Maybe, as Mizuko said, we won't even really die, just carry on in the feedback loop we are stuck in. Instead of…

— Olivia Sudjic

“We had, I felt, bared small pieces of our symmetrical souls to each other, fast, as if playing one of those breathless…

— Olivia Sudjic

“I went back to my room and spent all night contemplating whether it was possible in life not to be constantly let…

— Olivia Sudjic

“The city is tricky. The highs are so much higher, but in the lows you drop straight down again to bedrock. It…

— Olivia Sudjic

“Begin at the beginning. Know nothing. Tabula rasa. At the same time, part of me wanted to distinguish myself. To let her…

— Olivia Sudjic

“At first, sending the confession by real mail had felt like a genius device. I would not have to sit by my…

— Olivia Sudjic

“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

“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

“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

“I found it hard to write the bits where the things that were at first surprising or even shocking became normal incrementally…

— Olivia Sudjic

“There was an extravagant winter storm outside. The tinfoil sky flashed beyond the window, rattling in the frame, and once or twice…

— Olivia Sudjic

“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

“The situation got worse when they came back to her apartment after and someone put on music. An advert interrupted during a…

— Olivia Sudjic

“Have you ever truly, keenly felt like you don't know who you are? Do you ever do something and think, Who is…

— Olivia Sudjic

“He had deduced also that I was quirky and promised me that he was too.”

— Olivia Sudjic

“I couldn't think of a reply except No , so I said, 'Sure.”

— Olivia Sudjic

“They seemed to despise each other, with a kind of loyalty.”

— Olivia Sudjic

“If everything stays the same, it seems possible for someone to come back.”

— Olivia Sudjic

“She came back to me at 10.01 the next morning, a mirror time, as I'd expected.”

— Olivia Sudjic