So are you an inmate or a rubbernecker?" she asks. "Rubbernecker," I answer without hesitation. "You?" "I'm a screw. Or on staff, anyway. Used to be an inmate. Repeat offender. Crimes against my body. Puking sickness followed by heroin, which led to more puking sickness." I'd be surprised at her forthrightness, but that's addicts for you. The twelve steps crack 'em open and then they can't shut up.

Lauren Beukes

Categorized in : Ems Cracks Twelve

Traffic in Joburg is like the democratic process. Every time you think it's going to get moving and take you somewhere, you hit another jam.

Lauren Beukes

jam moving thinking

Fashion is only different skins for different flavours of you.

Lauren Beukes

fashion different skins

She would disappear folded like origami into her own dreams

Lauren Beukes

origami disappear dream

There are only so many plots in the world. It's how they unfold that makes them interesting.

Lauren Beukes

plot world interesting

Can't reinvent the wheel. But you can put your own spin on it.

Lauren Beukes

wheels

Everyone lives three versions of themselves; a public life, a private life and a secret life.

Lauren Beukes

private-life three secret

Shakespeare would have it wrong these days. It's not the world that's the stage - it's social media, where you're trying to put on a show. The rest of your life is rehearsals, prepping in the wings to be fabulous online.

Lauren Beukes

media wings trying

Only other people can make you feel real.

Lauren Beukes

real feels people

The problem with snapshots is that they replace actual memories. You lock down the moment and it becomes all there is of it.

Lauren Beukes

snapshots locks memories

What I love about collaborating is that you're working with other minds that work differently to yours.

Lauren Beukes

working-with-others collaborating mind

It's hard to get justice in the real world. It's possible in fiction.

Lauren Beukes

real justice fiction

World needs more angels, even plywood ones.

Lauren Beukes

angel world needs

People don't want novelty - they want the reassurance of familiarity. No-one wants to be challenged, no-one wants to have their minds blown. There is an insatiable appetite for affirmation.

Lauren Beukes

mind want people

The biggest fairy tale is that justice works because it doesn't.

Lauren Beukes

fairy-tale fairy justice

You have to get up pretty early in the morning to invent the news.

Lauren Beukes

get-up news morning

I really wanted to believe that there were these magic celestial bodies that would direct my life, tell me what to do, and it turns out it's not stars, it's some bits of screwy DNA. I'm just meat with faulty programming.

Lauren Beukes

dna stars believe

There are patterns because we try to find them. A desperate attempt at order because we can't face the terror that it might all be random.

Lauren Beukes

patterns trying order

Memory is curated. All this paraphernalia you collect to ward off forgetting

Lauren Beukes

forget memories

The future is not as loud as war, but it is relentless. It has a terrible fury all its own.

Lauren Beukes

relentless loud war

I've always loved Japanese legend, anime and manga.

Lauren Beukes

japanese legend loved always