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What men live by, Leo Tolstoy

Quotes:  'We give but why does nobody give us anything?' Simon did not know what to say; so he only said, 'let us stop talking', and turned over and went to sleep'. 'Living as he does, how should he not grow strong?' Death itself can't touch a rock as that'. '...Michael was now living his sixth year with Simon. He lived as before. he went nowhere, only spoke when necessary, and had only smiled twice in all those years - once when Matryonea gave him food, and a second time when the gentleman was in their hut... [Simon] never now asked him where he came from, and only feared lest Michael should go away'. 'In dying, she had rolled on to this child and crushed her leg'. ...when suddenly the whole hut was lighted up as though by summer lightning from the corner where Michael sat. they all looked towards him and saw him sitting, his hands folded on his knees, gazing upwards and smiling'. 'Tell me, Michael, why does your face shine s...
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Oil of Dog by Ambrose Bierce

'She removed not only superfluous and unwelcome babes to order, but went out into the highways and byways, gathering in children of a larger growth, and even such adults as she could entice to the oilery. My father, too, enamored of the superior quality of oil produced, purveyed for his vats with diligence and zeal. The conversion of their neighbors into dog-oil became, in short, the one passion of their lives--an absorbing and overwhelming greed took possession of their souls and served them in place of a hope in Heaven--by which, also, they were inspired' The name is Boffer Bings! A boy who collects dogs for his father's cauldrons and who discards dead babies in the river, a product of his mother's discreet trade of getting rid of unwanted foundlings. One night, escaping the suspicious police, he enters his father's dog oil premises without having had the chance to discard his load. The idea occurs quite naturally to him - why not throw it into the furnace, no one...
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An Island is a World - Sam Selvon

Some quotes taken from the book: ' My friend, become famous, and you can talk bull and the people will listen avidly '. 'You could feel a tensity and a crazy anxiety for movement in the people, as if they felt that to stop and take stock would be to court disaster'. (118). 'Wear this, don't wear that. Eat this, dont eat that. Make love this way, not that way. What kind of toilet paper do you use? And this is a mentality which is supposed  to be better than mine, for I am only a poor coloured colonial from a backward island far across the world, come to learn about life in the great city of London, where the cream of the white people live' (120). '...there were times when I was hungered and I saw my landlady go out and buy rabbit for her cat (she doesn't like fish, the little dear, isn't that strange?) and meat for the dog. And for all the fuss and attention paid to them, one could find time to wish one were a dog instead of a suffering human bein...
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Samanta Schweblin. Continuation of the story 'Pajaros en la boca'

This exercise is part of a writing workshop in Köln: Esperé largos segundos fuera de su habitación, adosado a la pared, intentando controlar la respiración. Pensé: “tengo que salir de acá, necesito aire,  tengo que escapar’. Cogí las llaves, fui al coche y como si éste decidiera mi camino, me encontré de nuevo en el supermercado. Cogí el chango, pasé por los pasillos, pero el sólo hecho de estar allí de nuevo, en una rutina que se había convertido en absurda,  comenzó a incomodarme gravemente. Me paré frente a los enlatados pero desistí. Volví a la sección de mascotas, cogí comida para pájaros sin pensarlo y volví a dar vueltas por los pasillos. Acabé de nuevo en la sección de mascotas. Volví a meter el alimento en la góndola. Quise salir de allí de inmediato. Aparqué el chango vacío y volví al coche. Esta vez intuía lo que tenía que hacer. Media hora después, estaba frente a la veterinaria. Entré sin más, y encontré al mismo empleado que me atendió la última vez. “Verás” –c...
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