"The ghosts and devils keep their distance, but they make their presence known: "Out, bitch," they howl, from their hidden perches; "Get out! Leave us alone! Shes ours bitch — not yours! If the two women hear, the give no indication; just go on with their gentle talk, like old and dear friends."
John Marc DeMatteis is an American writer of comic books, television, film, and novels.
"We wander across the years, stumble through frequent failures, rare successes; consume, copulate, manipulate, acquire, rage, weep, hate, love — and it means nothing. Because for all our grasping and desiring, all our craving and prayers — nothing fills the emptiness."
Mercy (Vertigo)"Shes a mystery, Mercy is — and a quick one at that: One minute India, the next New York: homeless and lice-ridden, sleeping in the cold. … The face and form are different — but somehow the same. I can always recognize her. That infuriating smile gives her away… as if she knows something no one else does; as if she holds the key that unlocks a question no one even thought to ask."
Mercy (Vertigo)"Old defeated, every bone aching — yet she labors on. … Why does she do it. Slip unnoticed, through old and young, strong and dying, male and female, black and white — feeling every stretch of muscle, drinking in every gulp of air — vibrating through every blood drop shed, every tear fallen? … Why move, a soul-wind through those millions of meaningless lives? … Why be trapped by the limitations of human flesh — defiled by the stink and rot of human kind — when shes so much more?"
Mercy (Vertigo)"They whirl like dervishes before my minds eye: Taunting me. Seducing me. Touching something deep within me: unnamed. Long forgotten. Always remembered. … And above them all, stands Mercy, the savior. Mercy, the devil. Mercy, the fool? … Which is she? And why do I care? … But I do care. I do! And that…more than any of this — terrifies me beyond words."
Mercy (Vertigo)"I understand: Their chief has died, and his only son has not yet reached the age of manhood. … So they offer him up to the heat and light, believing that, if he is worthy to succeed his father, he will not die on the pyre."
Mercy (Vertigo)"Human suffering calls you down into our world, to ease it, transform it! … Through my whirling ecstasy … my spinning exaltation … a pattern takes shape: a Wheel — huge as Heaven, tinier than a stray thought — spinning through the universes! … And there, at the wheels hub: the Force behind it all … within us all! … Unnameable, alive, It spins the Wheel, shaking each soul in its turn, and through us — shaking the world."
Mercy (Vertigo)