Clouding my judgement. ..

"...he was narcissistic, androgynous, lovely, and yes, charming...

She knew she judged people based on their surface appearance, 

but Lord Byron said only shallow people don't judge by surfaces. 

So Corliss thought of herself as Byronesque as she eavesdropped on the young couple...

...She hoped one of these ordinary people might say something interesting and original.

 She believed in the endless nature of human possibility. 

She would be delighted if these two messy humans transcended their stereotypes

 and revealed themselves as mortal angels."

"How can you live a special life without constantly interrogating it?"

"Corliss knew she was smart because her mother was smart,

 but she also knew she'd inherited a little bit of her mother's crazies as well."

"To be considered epic, one needed only to employ an epic biographer.

 Since Corliss was telling her own story, she decided it was an autobiographical epic.

 Hell, maybe she was Homer. Maybe she was Odysseus. 

Maybe everybody was a descendant of Homer and Odysseus. 

Maybe every human journey was epic." 

"She wasn't searching for a nomad who had disappeared into the wilds.

 She'd found a man who had stayed in one place and slowly become invisible.

 If a poet falls in a forest, and there's nobody around to hear him, 

does he make a metaphor or simile?"

"On every mission, there is a time to be strong and a time to be humble."

" 'We all want to be special,' I said. 

'We all want to be the last surviving member of our species.' "

"Yes, I wonder if I'm going to be alone and lonely for the rest of my life. 

After all, I think we marry our mirrors, if you understand what I'm saying, 

but I work in rooms where the walls are covered with paintings of great white men."

"Fine, then I'm a contradiction, but at least I admit that.

 You're talking about these things like you know more than the rest of us. 

Like you're absolutely right."

"Somebody has to be right," she said..."

"Don't you see? Your whole life can be determined by one moment. 

You make one choice, one mistake, and that's it. 

You've made the map you've got to follow for the rest of your life."

"He was funny sometimes, maybe most of the time, 

but nobody could be funny all of the time. 

And being funny was sometimes a way of being dishonest."

"He was scared, and she knew it and didn't hate him for it. 

She wasn't afraid of his fear, and she wouldn't hurt him for it. 

She was so young and so smart, and she led him by the hand...

Mr. Death, Frank thought, if a lie is beautiful, then is it truly a lie?"

All quotes from "Ten Little Indians" by Sherman Alexie.

All photographs by Eleanor Hardwick.