If the aging magician should begin to feel like the king’s food tester, it’s because he senses that everyone is looking at him out of the corners of their eyes, waiting for him to die… While the aging magician has never believed in God, and isn’t about to now, he knows that God is the king for whom he must die: that his death will preserve some greater life. The poison, this time, is grief, and God has sent him to eat its tasty morsels before they reach the dark and starry platter. Or maybe what he fears is just the opposite: that nobody is looking: that his death, like his life, is without purpose: that there is neither greater good nor evil—only people living and dying because their bodies function and then do not; that the universe is a rip.

…”It is said that the Messiah will come at the end of the world.” “But it was not the end of the world,” Grandfather said. “It was, He just did not come.” “Why did he not come?” “This was the lesson we learned from everything that happened—there is not God. It took all of the hidden faces for Him to prove this to us.” “What if it was a challenge of your faith?” I said. “I could not believe in a God that would challenge faith like this.” “What if it was not in His power?” “I could not believe in a God that could not stop what happened.” “What if it was man and not God that did all of this?” “I do not believe in man, either.

It’s true: Only the blind can have sex without pain.
It’s true: We’re not blowing kisses to the minaret’s barred window; we’re going to burn down the palace.
It’s true: Adults cry less than children, and have more need to cry.
It’s true: When you care about me, you care about you caring about me. And when I care about you, I care about me caring about you.
It’s true: There’s gold at the end of the rainbow. That’s all there is!
It’s true: I can no longer distinguish my pockets from my rips, my tricks from being tricked.
It’s true: I have been to this place before.

Love me, because love doesn’t exist, and I have tried everything that does.

I am always sad, I think. Perhaps this signifies that I am not sad at all, because sadness is something lower than your normal disposition, and I am always the same thing. Perhaps I am the only person in the world, then, who never becomes sad. Perhaps I am lucky.

I would like a coffee ampersand something sweet.

It is said that the Messiah will come at the end of the world.”
“But it was not the end of the world,” Grandfather said.
“It was. He just did not come.”
“Why did he not come?”
“This was the lesson we learned from everything that happened—there is no God. It took all of the hidden faces for Him to prove this to us.”
“What if it was a challenge of your faith?” I said
“I could not believe in a God that would challenge faith like this.”
“What if it was not in his power?”
“I could not believe in a God that could not stop what happened.”
“What if it was man and not God that did all of this?”
“I do not believe in man, either.

best book ever written.

(via cultofstars)

The prehistoric ant in Yankel’s ring, which had lain motionless in the honey-colored amber since long before Noah hammered the first plank, hid its head between its many legs, in shame.

(via thespacesamidlove)