He squeezes Quentin's hand, and keeps breathing steadily. He still can't believe he just said -
Maybe it will be better if he doesn't think about it.
"All I really want. Is. For you to try and do a double-take the next time you think he's insinuating anything." The fingertips of his free hand trace over Quentin's captive knuckles.
"I don't think insignificant is a - meaningful word. For people. I mean - that heretic, last week, by any standards of history or impact or uniqueness, was insignificant. One of billions over a thousand years. But he was real and his loss mattered and you know that, right down in your marrow where you can't shut it out. And I would - submit to you, that an arbitrary threshold of pain is not the only ennobling quality of human life, or the only moral standard for consideration of human problems. I refuse to believe that, and I don't think you really do either. Not when it's anybody but you."
no subject
Maybe it will be better if he doesn't think about it.
"All I really want. Is. For you to try and do a double-take the next time you think he's insinuating anything." The fingertips of his free hand trace over Quentin's captive knuckles.
"I don't think insignificant is a - meaningful word. For people. I mean - that heretic, last week, by any standards of history or impact or uniqueness, was insignificant. One of billions over a thousand years. But he was real and his loss mattered and you know that, right down in your marrow where you can't shut it out. And I would - submit to you, that an arbitrary threshold of pain is not the only ennobling quality of human life, or the only moral standard for consideration of human problems. I refuse to believe that, and I don't think you really do either. Not when it's anybody but you."