Frankissstein Sentence Starters
lines taken from the 2019 novel by Jeanette Winterson. edit as desired. tw: lots of discussion of death.
“Reality is water-soluble.”
“I am a poor specimen of a creature, except that I can think.”
“The dead are gone. If we have souls, they do not return.”
“The human race seeks its own death.”
“Do you believe in ghosts? Truly?”
“I am used to death, and I hate it.”
“I am not afraid of solitude.”
“If a corpse returned to life, would it be alive?”
“Have you no conscience? No scruples?”
“Have you no interest in the future?”
“The light of science burns brightest in a blood-soaked wick.”
“We all have a Soul. Hallelujah.”
“I have been visited by an angel, [NAME].”
“One life is not enough.”
“That’s forty gallons of barbecue sauce in a giant vat and in you go. Yes! Right in! Fight it out!”
“Have you personally fought in a vat of sauce?”
“For now we are still human. All too human.”
“I don’t get involved. I have standards.”
“I hate almond milk. My doctor tried to get me on it. Cholesterol. I said, mate, I’d rather have the heart attack.”
“What is real life these days?”
“Humankind cannot bear very much reality.”
“We shall all be dead soon enough.”
“Is there not more to life than what we desire?”
“What I want does exist, if I dare to find it.”
“Suffering, I do believe, is something of the mark of the soul.”
“Reality cannot bear very much of humankind.”
“I am what I am, but what I am is not one thing.”
“We’re going to wake up one morning and the world won’t be the same.”
“Are you in love with him/her/them?”
“Do you say whatever comes into your head?”
“Love is as strong as death.”
“Do you want to live forever?”
“Life is hard. Hard is okay. It’s hopeless and helpless that sucks.”
“You’re shivering. It’s not cold but you are shivering.”
“Time has no pity. Time cannot unhappen.”
“We destroy out of hatred. We destroy out of love.”
“How did you get my number?”
“You love the idea of me.”
“We could disappear and start again somewhere.”
“Your body will decay and die. You won’t like that.”
“Humans. So many good ideas. So many failed ideals.”
“You know how useful horrible is.”
“I have never had a lasting relationship. Have you?”
“Soon you will leave me.”
“Does it have to be this complicated?”
“Sanity is the thread through the labyrinth of the Minotaur.”
“Is that not the human condition? To seek one who flees? Or to flee from one who seeks us?”
“Don’t panic, [NAME]. I’m not a murderer.”
“Why should anyone object when we seek to deter death?”
“I wish you would trust me.”
“I wish I could trust you.”
“I do not know if I am the teller or the tale.”
“Only in the living of it does life seem ordinary. In the telling of it, we find ourselves strangers among the strange.”
“Love’s not zeroes and ones.”
“The opposite of the past is the present. Anyone can live in a past that is gone or a future that does not exist. The opposite of either position is the present.”
“I don’t like the word ‘extinction.’ It’s alarmist.”
“Being wiped out is alarming.”
“I imagine I can trust you?”
“Let’s agree to trust each other on this.”
“There is always loss. Always failure.”
“What is sanity? Can you tell me?”
“Won’t you come home with me? Forget the rest. Forget it all.”
“It is not always possible to forgive oneself. And sometimes you make a choice to do something, knowing that you must do it, and that forgiveness is impossible.”
“Why can’t we mend ourselves? Why can’t we save each other?”
“Time will find us, but not yet.”
“I am the monster you created.”
“I don’t look sensitive, but I am sensitive.”
“Ask yourself this question: what is death?”
“I will know I am dead and I will know there’s nothing I can do about it.”
“Wouldn’t you like to fall in love, [NAME]?”
“I know you think you’re smart, but let me tell you something about relationships.”
“Tell me this: where is your Soul?”
“We all need something. That’s life.”
“I write poetry. That will surprise you, but I do.”
“Don’t you ever hesitate? Doubt? Cry alone at night for what you can’t understand in yourself or others?”
“I do not know if I can bear this reality.”
“It is time for you to die.”
“You lack ambition. Or perhaps it is courage that you lack.”
“What did you expect? When you look closely, life is absurd.”
“Are you saying goodbye?”
“Let me tell you this – love has many faces, but none is bruised.”
“We are lucky, even the worst of us, because daylight comes.”
“Humanity is not a steady-state system.”
“We are stubborn. We survive. Grief alone does not kill us.”
“Grief means living with someone who is no longer there.”
