Nathaniel

“Drugs are a bad habit, so why do it? Because, said Dimple, it isn't the heroin that we're addicted to, it's the drama of the life, the chaos of it, that's the real addiction and we never get over it; and because when you come down to it, the high life, that is, the intoxicated life, is the best of the limited options offered.”
― Jeet Thayil

“How will the ships navigate
without stars? And then he remembered that the stars were
dead, long dead, and the light they shed was not to be trusted,
was false, if not an outright lie, and in any case was inadequate,
unequal to its task, which was to illuminate the evil that men did.”
― Jeet Thayil, Narcopolis

“I lived in books more than I lived anywhere else.”
― Neil Gaiman, The Ocean at the End of the Lane

“You die. You get old and die. Your anger curdles, your grief dries,
your talent fades on the page. Your cells metastasise into an army
dedicated to the overthrow of you. You become dependent on paid
strangers for the maintenance of your blood and your brittle bones.
You understand that thought is the enemy, the source of all lesions,
tumours, and sarcomas; then thought becomes flesh becomes the
emblem of your shame.”
― Jeet Thayil, The Book of Chocolate Saints