Shadow Theatre

And some of it was rumor, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen, and it's not as if everything that happened ever became a story.

from Shadow Theatre
by Fiona Cheong
Soho Press, 2002

Moonrise, Sunset

There is no contradiction between religiosity and vanity. They may, in fact, be part of the same phenomenon.

from Moonrise, Sunset
by Gopal Baratham
Serpent's Tail, 1996

Exit Strategy

Real money is an oxymoron. A false idol. People building its pyramids are still slaves.

from Exit Strategy
by Douglas Rushkoff
Soft Skull Press, 2002

What You See / Los Angeles Noir

We're all so nice to each other, nice and polite until we're not. Maybe if we were rude in little ways at the very moment we got annoyed, we wouldn't kill each other later.

from What You See
by Diana Wagman
appearing in Los Angeles Noir
Akashic Books, 2007

The Foreign Correspondent

Typing late at night had near saintly status in the city of Paris - who knew what wondrous flights of imagination might be in progress - and people liked the idea of an inspired soul, pounding away after a midnight visit from the muse.

from The Foreign Correspondent
by Alan Furst
Random House, 2006

A Candle or the Sun

Discoveries never really come as surprises. The picture exists in its entirety the moment we lock the first piece of the puzzle on to the second. The speed at which we realize this depends on our willingness to admit to the reality of what is displayed before our eyes.

from A Candle or the Sun
by Gopal Baratham
Serpent's Tail, 1991