One of Many

A - "The skill is knowing what not to say, and when not to say it. Take all of those things in your head, line them up, and look them straight down the row. What am I gonna say? What testament am I gonna leave? Writing is no rare skill. It may take a bit of mathmatics, but only subtraction. All of those trillion things that just flashed through your head right now - you subtract and subtract and you get the essence of what you really need to communicate. And once you're there, you'll see where you want to go, what you want to say, and the sentences will be plain and clear."

B - "What do you want to say?"

A - "I think what everyone finds once they get past all the words is something akin to compassion. You find yourself alone, you're scared, and you move past all associations and defenses and head right into that core of yourself, and what do you see? You see everyone else, everything else. And your relation to that."

B - "Why be compassionate if nothing really matters? I may not find that path for myself. If we don't have a proven end, aren't all means justified? What if my relation to things is to steal them?"

A - "You'll see, once you live a little bit longer, how real ghosts are. Your choices follow you forever. Your words never die. There are a billion ugly things I haven't said, and a billion I have, and I'm much happier with the former. Never underestimate the power of silence."

posted by ZHorton at 11:29 AM