The Doll-Master and Other Tales of Horror

life, there are predators, and prey. A predator may require bait, and prey may mistake bait for sustenance.

but high grades seemed to me a kind of embarrassment, the consequence of hard work as hard work seemed but the consequence of desperation.

the woman has smiled so hard and so often there are sharp crow’s-feet beside her eyes.

For here is the injustice: only if you are killed, are you “innocent.” If you fight for your life, you are “guilty.”

I did not like these Russian dolls, that made me feel slightly sick. I thought of how a woman carries a baby inside her and how terrifying it would be if that baby carried another baby inside it.

“The animals seem ‘tame’ to us, but that’s a misconception. They are not ‘tame.’ They just have no genetic memory of human beings as predators.”