Mystrey Quotes

You keep distracting from the main point, Vaida. I did not come to Harare to study other people's scars. I have my own to worry about. They make me sick. I will never recover from the events that carved them into my body. You should focus on healing yours instead of creating new ones. ~ Taona Dumisani Chiveneko

The poor always live on debt. At this point, time is the only thing I still have the credibility to borrow. ~ Taona Dumisani Chiveneko

In Panama, I found a spider that eats its own limbs during lean times. I am told they grow back. But though the distinction is razor-thin, desperation is not the same thing as determination. Nevertheless, auto-cannibalism is one the most intriguing phenomenon I have ever heard of. ~ Taona Dumisani Chiveneko

He had the muscular definition of a man who had spent his life restraining elephants in heat. ~ Taona Dumisani Chiveneko

The key trait of a Sperm Pirate is that she is not driven by desperation. Escaping poverty or hardship is not her motive. She usually has a good education and access to the same opportunities as the man she tries to trap. However, she understands that it is more efficient to enjoy a lavish lifestyle through the sweat of another's labour. But the Sperm Pirate is acutely aware that the infatuation of a hormonal man has a brief shelf life. This poor collateral must be cashed in before it expires. A pregnancy is the best way to convert this volatile resource into a stable asset. Babies are reliable insurance policies. They create legal obligations for financial support, even when the sweet milk of passion turns sour. ~ Taona Dumisani Chiveneko

One candidate who considered applying for the position explained his change of heart: That job is like unprotected sex. It feels amazing at the time, but there is a good chance you will pay for it later. None of the benefits are worth the pleasure. ~ Taona Dumisani Chiveneko

When a group of people are forced to navigate a minefield together, everyone feels a grudging sense of comfort when someone else gets blown up. Though there may be other unseen landmines left in the ground, each death creates a safe spot. A landmine cannot explode twice in the same place. Sure, the explosion robs the survivors of a comrade. Still, each death makes everyone's next step marginally safer. So everyone keeps walking with grief on their faces, and relief in their hearts. Their own deaths are further postponed by the end of another life. ~ Taona Dumisani Chiveneko

The primitive craving for survival is universal in all things capable of dying. Now imagine if you could isolate the basic element that drives all animals to fight for survival? What would you do with it? I already had my own ideas when I started my search for an entity I eventually dubbed "The Determination Gene". ~ Taona Dumisani Chiveneko

Professor, when people say such things after impossibility smacks them in the face, we call it denial ~ Taona Dumisani Chiveneko

I will not mince words. There's been enough mincing for one day. Therefore, I shall ask my question bluntly: How does a man know that his body has been turned inside out? ... His eyes can see the back of his skull with an alarming clarity. I am told it hurts like hell. Especially when he refuses to explain why he has been investigating the hangman's replacement ~ Taona Dumisani Chiveneko

Professor Khupe felt his chest swell with pride. It was doing so without his encouragement. If an electrical fault had stopped the elevator from rising, his inflating ego would have powered the remainder of their journey to the twenty-second floor. ~ Taona Dumisani Chiveneko

Mr. Gweta and his daughter were the cosmetics camouflaging an infected blackhead. The rest of the ugliness ran deep into a world where plants ate people and botanists lay at the bottom of the food chain. ~ Taona Dumisani Chiveneko

Not all diseases come from bacteria and viruses, Professor. The worst often come from things you cannot see under a microscope. This plant is infested with an aggressive strain of such invisible germs. ~ Taona Dumisani Chiveneko

Nothing prepares you for hiring a person whose only contribution to the workforce will be killing people! ~ Taona Dumisani Chiveneko

The girl had a special way of saying "anything". The gods had blessed her voice with a special monopoly. It delivered an acoustic chocolate that was laced with all flavours of euphoria. The substance led to surges in testosterone in all types of men, including the average botanist. "Anything." The way she handled the word endowed it with so many possibilities. Professor Khupe decided to investigate how many of these Ketiwe would let him explore. To his delight the parameters of the word had proven to be quite elastic. ~ Taona Dumisani Chiveneko

As they say: A baking man will grasp at a hangman. Whoever gets the job will be dragged into the heat, forced to wear a massive pair of iron shoes, and frogmarched across the minefield at gunpoint. ~ Taona Dumisani Chiveneko

The successful recruit must be empathetic. This condition rules out the sadistic, the vengeful, and the enthusiastic. Therefore, many of the garden-variety killers who applied so far have had no chance of success, especially those who are already behind bars. ~ Taona Dumisani Chiveneko

The funnel of my family's salvation must continue narrowing towards the gallows. That journey cannot begin at the parted tips of another woman's toes ~ Taona Dumisani Chiveneko

Abel Muranda fought off furious red ants with mandibles that could cut through a miser's padlock. ~ Taona Dumisani Chiveneko

Further north, I met a Siberian hermit who lived in the foothills of the Ural Mountains. His life's passion was wrestling black bears ... in the nude (him not the bears). He did not know why he did it. All the hermit knew was that if he stopped wrestling bears, he would die. ~ Taona Dumisani Chiveneko

I appreciate the gesture, but you don't have to undress in order to apologize ~ Taona Dumisani Chiveneko

... the only difference between carnivores and plants is that the latter eat meat through 'translator' organisms. Maggots and bacteria 'pre-chew' dead animal matter, which plants then absorb as nutrients. So if eating pre-chewed food does not change the fact that a baby is human, why should a plant be any less of a carnivore because it out-sources the digestion of animal protein to organisms of decay? ~ Taona Dumisani Chiveneko