“Silence is a protective coating over pain.”

“A new pain enters and the old pains of the household receive it with their silence, not with their death.”

“When they carried Jack in, Hill threw his coat over Jack's head, and I held his head to throw the coat over it. It wasn't repulsive to me for one moment — nothing was repulsive to me”

“you’d think that silence would be peaceful. but really, it’s painful.”

“But adulthood," continued the barely twentysomething, "doesn't give you power over what matters most. It doesn't protect you from pain, loss, fate. That's part of being human.”

“We're fine together, just like this: Our silence protects us from ourselves”

“And every bird I ever knew
Back and forth in the summer flew;
And breezes wafted over me
The scent of every flower and tree:
Till I forgot the pain and gloom
And silence of my darkened room”

“He is just protective over me-”
“Not protective, Tania. Consumed.”

“I'm safe,
Up high.
Nothing can touch me.
But why do I feel this party's over?
No pain,
Inside.
You're like protection.
How do I feel this good sober?”

“The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking.”