“Things so special and rare and yours that advertising your affection feels like betrayal.”

“Books so special and rare and yours that advertising your affection feels like a betrayal.”

“there are books which you can't tell people about, books so special and rare and yours that advertising your affection feels like a betrayal.”

“My favorite book, by a wide margin, was An Imperial Affliction, but I didn’t like to tell people about it. Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you withthis weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read thebook. And then there are books like An Imperial Affliction, which you can’t tell people about, books so special and rare and yours that advertising your affection feels like a betrayal.It wasn’t even that the book was so good or anything; it was just that the author, Peter Van Houten, seemed to understand me in weird and impossible ways. An Imperial Affliction was my book, in the way my body was my body and my thoughts were my thoughts.”

“It is an awful thing to be betrayed by your body. And it’s lonely, because you feel you can’t talk about it.”

“So this was betrayal. It was like being left alone in the desert at dusk without water or warmth. It left your mouth dry and will broken. It sapped your tears and made you hollow.”