Olivia Sudjic

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

— Olivia Sudjic

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

— Olivia Sudjic

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

— Olivia Sudjic

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

— Olivia Sudjic

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

— 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

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

— Olivia Sudjic

“I had never been tempted to take drugs of any kind and especially not mind-altering ones, but when Mizuko introduced me to…

— Olivia Sudjic

“I don't want to alarm anyone, but everywhere we go I see Alec Baldwin. It's like he's following us.”

— Olivia Sudjic

“The sharp, superficial pain at being spoken to unkindly had obscured the deeper pain, which had not yet turned into something hard…

— Olivia Sudjic

“The messages must be stuck somewhere in the tube of light underneath the ocean that connects London and New York.”

— Olivia Sudjic

“Yes,' she said, her nod and smile so American and so misleading. 'You are not supposed to be here—you're supposed to be…

— Olivia Sudjic

“Waking in the morning, I had to remember grief all over again. It was sunny, a white winter sun, and that made…

— Olivia Sudjic

“But I can't help thinking of the shock I felt when I finally realised it was winter, on exiting Mizuko's apartment. The…

— 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

“She was convinced a word existed, a noun, that meant the loss of feelings for someone who was formerly loved—a word for…

— Olivia Sudjic

“She told me it was unlucky to share a reading with others, but the main point, the one I don't mind mentioning…

— Olivia Sudjic

“Was this what the city would look like when knowledge was no longer enough? When the desire to turn inward, surrendering entirely…

— Olivia Sudjic

“And yet how treacherous, I thought, after such neutrality, bordering on indifference, and occaisonally open hostility, when the whole city finally seemed…

— Olivia Sudjic

“When I read it now it's like I have broken into a reality that is not mine, and when I step out…

— Olivia Sudjic

“Working out that I am not Mizuko has been an important step towards feeling better. If I have hit on a moral,…

— Olivia Sudjic

“I know I only want him,' she said between sobs, the syllables all wrong, 'because he doesn't want me . How is…

— 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

“My reflections amount to a love story that is mostly made up, from memories that are mostly false, between people who were…

— 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

“When she did walk, to the bathroom between the chairs and the customers leaning back in them, oblivious to her manoeuvres, the…

— 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

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

— 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

“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 hope when this is done I'll be able to get back into my happy gardening vibe that was so healthy for…

— 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

“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

“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

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

— Olivia Sudjic

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

— Olivia Sudjic

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

— Olivia Sudjic

“I watched us without interest, heard us only faintly, like strangers below my window.”

— Olivia Sudjic

“I don't know, I can't know, but I almost did.”

— Olivia Sudjic