Quotes from Adam Johnson

And then the idea of a portrait, of any person, placed over your heart, forever, seemed irresistible. How was it that we didn't walk around with every person who mattered tattooed on us forever? And then Jun Do remembered that he had no one that mattered to him, which was why his tattoo would be of an actress he'd never seen, taken from a calendar at the helm of a fishing boat.

The key to fighting in the dark was no different: you had to perceive your opponent, sense him, and never use your imagination. The darkness inside your head is something your imagination fills with stories that have nothing to do with the real darkness around you. From

In the South, workers would be tittyweeping that someone had broken the "rules" by giving away government property. But here, discipline reigns

Was this what a family was, how it grew—straight as the children's teeth? Sure, there was an arm in a sling and over time the grandparents disappeared from the photos. The occasions changed, as did the dogs. But this was a family, start to finish, without wars or famines or political prisons, without a stranger coming to town to drown your daughter.

You can barely make out the heavy wooden block of the contortion seat. I run my hands along it's contours, the wood grain smooth and polished from human flesh.

If you keep your eyes closed, your mind will show you all kinds of crazy movies...But with your eyes open, all you had to face was the nothingness of what you were really doing.

Nonc's dad has had cancer before, so the diagnosis isn't exactly news. There's something right about it, though. A man spends his life "not expected"—isn't that how it should end?

But people do things to survive, and then after they survive, they can't live with what they've done.

Someone needs to tell them that they're better off without their coffee tables and photo albums. Some person will have to break it to them that their apartments weren't so great, that losing track of half their relatives is probably for the best. Some shit, though, you got to figure for yourself.

But look closer, this revolver is North Korean. It was constructed by our own engineers and is actually a forty-six-caliber, a little bigger, a little more powerful than the American model

Our rival interrogation team is the Pubyok, named after the "floating wall" defenders that saved Pyongyang from invaders in 1136. There are only a dozen or so left, old men with silver crewcuts who walk in a row like a wall and truly believe they can float, stealthy as ghosts, from one citizen to the next, interrogating them as the wind interrogates the leaves.

Here is the safety belt," he said to Jun Do. "A hero may wear one or not, as he wishes. I am old and have no need for safety, but Comrade Buc, you must apply the belt. You are young, you have a wife and children.

For us, the story is more important than the person. If a man and his story are in conflict, it is the man who must change.

But in America, people's stories change all the time. In America, it is the man who matters. Perhaps they will believe your story and perhaps not, but you, Jun Do, they will believe you.

Please know that news of your country's complete collapse was met with sadness in our nation.

only a book could be written to help the average citizen penetrate and understand a dream's mysteries. Officially, the government took no position on what occurred while its citizens were asleep, but isn't something of the dreamer to be found in his dream? And

She lives in the apartment complex next door and has two daughters, a music blog and a committed relationship with alcohol.

that "take" was a word people used for those who had so little to give as to be immeasurable.

There are those who are born, those who are made, and then there are ones like this guy, the kind who choose.

At length, in depth, their spirited exchange culminated in a mutual exclaim of Party understanding.

For us, the story is more important than the person.

boy," he said. "And I went for a long walk and got lost. My

With a baby, I'd have something to show for all this. I'd have a reason. At the least, I'd have something to leave behind.

Since I sleep fully clothed, I'm able to answer right away. By sleeping with your clothes on, you don't need to climb under the sheets. You don't need to disturb a perfectly made bed or even fold the bed back into the couch.