Teju Cole, Open City Quotes

To be alive, it seemed to me, as I stood there in all kinds of sorrow, was to be both original and reflection, and to be dead was to be split off, to be reflection alone.

I adore imaginary monsters, but I am terrified of real ones.

It wasn't a deception: all lovers live on partial knowledge.

As he drank more and more, he became inebriated, and began to fashion damaged human beings.

There was no starting point for the rebellion, but I could mark an arbitrary one: that a grown-up was someone who, first and foremost, could drink a Coke at whim.