She was too alert, too alive not to have the kind of mind that probed and reached and got her into trouble… — Octavia E. Butler

Short-lived people, people who could die, did not know what enemies loneliness and boredom could be.

He was surprised when I ignored him. He is wealthy and arrogant and used to being listened to even when what he says is nonsense—as it often is.

“What will they do when they have only the herbs” he asked her.

“Live or die as best they can,” she said. “Everything truly alive dies sooner or later.”