Kawai Strong Washburn Biography & Quotes

“I go itchy with want, thin on sleep. I feel her fingers in mine. The way we could be both hard and soft on each other. Her sandy voice calling out as I climb one exposed cliff after another. ... All night this all goes through me, the four hours of sleep I get.”

Love Passion Longing Addiction Pining

Book:Sharks in the Time of Saviors

Source: Sharks in the Time of Saviors

“I wanted us together, wanted them to feel with me the big nameless thing we'd worked our way into, a silence like the presence of our own private God.”

God Silence Feeling Presence Togetherness

Book:Sharks in the Time of Saviors

Source: Sharks in the Time of Saviors

“But that's the problem with the present, it's never the thing you're holding, only the thing you're watching, later, from a distance so great the memory might as well be a spill of stars outside a window at twilight.”

Time Stars Memory Twilight Present Watching Later Holding

Book:Sharks in the Time of Saviors

Source: Sharks in the Time of Saviors

“Years already I'd been trying to understand what was inside me, while the rest of the world was trying it to tear it out.”

Destiny Power Savior Understand Internal Conflict

Book:Sharks in the Time of Saviors

Source: Sharks in the Time of Saviors

“Big destiny is a thing you get drunk on.”

Destiny Savior Toxic Drunkenness

Book:Sharks in the Time of Saviors

Source: Sharks in the Time of Saviors

“I ask Mom if love ever made her feel alone. If it ever made her feel like she was starving in a room full of food. She laughs. 'Only every day.' She leans over to me, across the gap between us, so that the side of her head touches mine....She whispers something, but I can't hear the words. 'I never thought I'd be the type of person who would do that to someone,' I say. 'Now it's exactly what I am. Forever.' Mom nods. 'It's always like that.' 'What do you mean?' I ask. 'Whenever I've made a choice in my life, a real choice...I can always feel the change, after I choose. The better versions of myself, moving just out of reach.' It's exactly what I think. So there's nothing to say.... 'I'm always losing better versions of myself,' she says. 'I don't know. You just have to keep trying.' [Kaui, in conversation with her mother Malia]”

Love Choices Self Betterment

Book:Sharks in the Time of Saviors

Source: Sharks in the Time of Saviors

“If a god is a thing that has absolute power over us, then in this world there are many. There are gods that we choose and gods that we can't avoid; there are gods that we pray to and gods that prey on us; there are dreams that become gods and nightmares that do, as well.”

Choices Powerful Power Dreams Pray Gods Prey Avoidance Nightmares

Book:Sharks in the Time of Saviors

Source: Sharks in the Time of Saviors

“Whenever I've made a choice in my life, a real choice... I can always feel the change, after I choose. The better versions of myself, moving just out of reach.”

Life Choices Change Alternative Lives Better Versions

Book:Sharks in the Time of Saviors

Source: Sharks in the Time of Saviors

“I've learned that laughter is the first wall he puts up against the hurt of the world. [Malia, referring to husband Augie]”

Laughter Self Defense

Book:Sharks in the Time of Saviors

Source: Sharks in the Time of Saviors

“But I'm in the water, too, I wanted to say. And there are plenty eyes on you. No one's watching to see if I stay afloat.”

Siblings Sibling Rivalry Sibling Loss

Book:Sharks in the Time of Saviors

Source: Sharks in the Time of Saviors

“You probably just finished shitting anyway," Kaui says. She hands him the thermos, "was it a soft serve morning or more like a German sausage?”

Pooping Shitting

Book:Sharks in the Time of Saviors

Source: Sharks in the Time of Saviors

“Take a match and hold it to the strip, start the strike. Somewhere at the microscopic level there are whole worlds of hot light that gather and jump to the match tip. That's what we were.”

Light Fire Flame Worlds Match Microscopic Strike The Match

Book:Sharks in the Time of Saviors

Source: Sharks in the Time of Saviors

Kawai Strong Washburn Biography

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