Quotes from Naomi Alderman

It follows that there are two ways for the nature and use of human power to change. One is that an order might issue from the palace, a command unto the people saying 'It is thus.' But the other, the more certain, the more inevitable, is that those thousand thousand points of light should each send a new message. When the people change, the palace cannot hold.

No wonder we spend our adult lives feeling we're simply pretending to know what we're doing. After sixteen years spent doing exams, where the lessons we've received perfectly fit the challenges we're faced with, our preparation for the unpredictable events of normal life will always seem shoddy and haphazard.

Still, it was hard to believe in a faint shadow on the lung. Who could see a shadow? What was a shadow? The congregation could not believe that Rav Krushka could succumb to a shadow.

The night birds were calling.

trying to protect the foreign hotels. They're advancing slowly, armed with

All'inizio non abbiamo parlato a cuore aperto perché non era virile. Adesso non parliamo perché abbiamo paura, ci vergogniamo, e ci sentiamo disperati, ognuno nella propria solitudine. E' difficile sapere quando siamo passati dalla prima fase alla seconda.

You can't get there from here.

Gender is a shell game. What is a man? Whatever a woman isn't. What is a woman? Whatever a man is not. Tap on it and it's hollow. Look under the shells: it's not there. Senkit nem lehet berakni egy dobozba. Ide hallgass, még egy k? sem ugyanaz, mint bármely másik k?, egyszóval nem is értem, milyen alapon címkéztek fel emberi lényeket üres szavakkal, és hiszitek azt, hogy mindent tudtok.

The way I see it, I'm dead, and so are you. What do dead people do for fun around here?

Consider this: which is greater, God or the world?" They say, for they have learned this already from the nuns, "God is greater, because God created the world." Eve says, "So the one who creates is greater than the thing created?" They say, "It must be so." Then Eve says, "So which must be greater, the Mother or the Son?

I've been thinking about two states of being—being gay, being Jewish. They have a lot in common. You don't choose it, that's the first thing. If you are, you are. There's nothing you can do to change it. Some people might deny this, but even if you're only "a little bit gay" or "a little bit Jewish," that's enough for you to identify yourself if you want.

I think that's what most of us want, really, isn't it? A challenge that's just hard enough that we can accomplish it, but it'll take everything we've got. So that there's no room left in us for the doubt, the worry, the internal crises. We have to let it fill us up because that's the only way to get the job done.

Looking forward to this! I think I'd rather enjoy this "world run by men" you've been talking about. Surely a kinder, more caring and—dare I say it?—more sexy world than the one we live in.

She wondered if she should have explained herself more clearly. She could not explain herself at all. There were no words, no permitted words, to explain anything that she wanted to say. All the words that could have communicated it had been banned, not only from her mouth but even from her mind. She was reduced to mere actions, which are both more and less than words.

Les voies du pouvoir sont impénétrables. Il agit sur les gens et les gens agissent sur lui. Quand le pouvoir existe-t-il? Uniquement lorsqu'on en fait usage.

Yes. I'm married. But that is a thing between me and Dovid, do you see? And whatever harm you might do to it has been done already. There is nothing more. And whatever pain I may give him, I have caused already. I know that. And whatever God may think of me, He thinks already.

I began to appreciate what money can provide: a waterproof imperviousness to the demands of others.

It was as though they had never known love: both terrible and wonderful. She had considered them before, the people who did not know Friday. She wondered now if this was how Ronit felt in New York, without lines and demarcations, without order and sense, without anchor. A thing both to be feared and desired.

You can see it on the internet. Boys dressing as girls to seem more powerful. Girls dressing as boys to shake off the meaning of the power, or to leap on the unsuspecting, wolf in sheep's clothing.

Look, do you know what I need right now?" "What?" I put my hand at that place at the back of his neck where his hair is short, soft bristles and pulled him toward me. And because it was easy, I guess, or familiar or just because it put an end to the awkwardness, he kissed me back. He smelled exactly like I remembered, maybe even better. And we fell to doing other easy, familiar, forbidden things.

It wasn't really as though I wanted either of them. I just expected them to be there when I needed them. I just expected that they'd stay where I put them, wouldn't cause trouble. They were both so obedient.

You would see good in the face of Satan himself if he arrived at your door with a pitiful story and a hungry belly." "And would I be wrong to do so? If Satan needed feeding?

I didn't think so," she says. "Let's work together on this one, OK, buddy? No sense throwing each other to the wolves." Margot is thinking about her future. You're gonna pump my gas someday, Daniel. I've got big plans. "Yeah," he says. "Yeah." She thinks, That is how a man speaks. And that is why.

She thinks to herself, If I was saved, there must be a reason.