Notes from the Burning Age Quotes

“Here's the history of the world for you.
Here's what the burning left behind.
You want gods, and all you get are people.”
― Claire North, Notes from the Burning Age

“You do not fix grief; there is no pill. You only wait, and be there, and let time pass.”
― Claire North, Notes from the Burning Age

“Grief never leaves, but life layers itself on top of the pain”
― Claire North, Notes from the Burning Age

“I want to take him down, down, to the cold archives beneath the temple, to the tunnles where we keep the past, to show him selfies and pictures of food, jokes and terrible puns in dead, archaic scripts, tell him, look, look - look at people living. Look how beautiful it is to be alive.”
― Claire North, Notes from the Burning Age

“As children, we look to adults to be perfect and say the right thing. Mama Taaq, face streaked grey from dust and tears, should have replied to her shivering, shuddering child: “You did everything right, my darling. You did everything you could and none of this is your fault.
Later she would say those words, but later was too late, because that night all she did was cry and turn away from her still-living daughter to try and find her dead one. These things are entirely natural and understandable – just not to a child.”
― Claire North, Notes from the Burning Age

“[I]n that instant [I] understood the need to scream, not in fear or hysteria but pure frustration, pure inexpressible grief that this was it, this was how it ended, a thing without words, all the things I'd never do, never be.”
― Claire North, Notes from the Burning Age

“Why I joined Temple!" Lah would say. "Tea, nice music, decent architecture!"
"And the devotion of your life to awe, gratitude, compassion, and respect?"
"Yes yes yes - all that stuff too.”
― Claire North, Notes from the Burning Age

“I always had you down as a seaside kind of man. Rolled-up trousers, an oversized tome about philosophy in dappled shade while drinking fruity concoctions.”
― Claire North, Notes from the Burning Age

“Well,” he sighed. “I was hoping to die better.” “How better?” I asked. “You know when you fall asleep after sex?” “Seems harsh on your sexual partner.”
― Claire North, Notes from the Burning Age