A loose transcription slash excerpt from Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer:
Mr. Black said, "I once went to report on a village in Russia-- a community of artists who were forced to flee the cities. I had heard that paintings hung everywhere. I had heard that you couldn't see the walls through all the paintings. They painted the ceilings, the plates, the windows, the lampshades-- was it an act of rebellion? An act of expression? Were the paintings good, or was that beside the point? I needed to see it for myself and I needed to tell the world about it. I used to live for reporting like that.
"Stalin found out about the community and sent his thugs in just a few days before I got there to break all of their arms. That was worse than killing them. It was a horrible sight, Oscar: their arms in crude splints straight out in front of them like zombies! They couldn't feed themselves, because they couldn't get their hands to their mouths. So you know what they did?"
"They starved?"
"They fed each other. That's the difference between heaven and hell. In hell, we starve. In heaven, we feed each other."
"I don't believe in the afterlife."
"Neither do I, but I believe in the story."
Mr. Black said, "I once went to report on a village in Russia-- a community of artists who were forced to flee the cities. I had heard that paintings hung everywhere. I had heard that you couldn't see the walls through all the paintings. They painted the ceilings, the plates, the windows, the lampshades-- was it an act of rebellion? An act of expression? Were the paintings good, or was that beside the point? I needed to see it for myself and I needed to tell the world about it. I used to live for reporting like that.
"Stalin found out about the community and sent his thugs in just a few days before I got there to break all of their arms. That was worse than killing them. It was a horrible sight, Oscar: their arms in crude splints straight out in front of them like zombies! They couldn't feed themselves, because they couldn't get their hands to their mouths. So you know what they did?"
"They starved?"
"They fed each other. That's the difference between heaven and hell. In hell, we starve. In heaven, we feed each other."
"I don't believe in the afterlife."
"Neither do I, but I believe in the story."
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How's house hunting coming? Are you still in the early process or have you actually begun touring homes? Oh, I'm so excited for you! I'll have to send you something fabulous as a housewarming!