A Thousand Inkwells

For the ink that bled on paper, to bring our stories to life.

[primulaceas]

Isabel Allende, The House of the Spirits (translated by Magda Bogin)

[athousandinkwells]

I rested against him for a moment, but I could feel the time pulling me away. Time was up. Time was up.

The Host, Stephanie Meyer

[athousandinkwells]

About my boss, Tyler tells me, if I'm really angry I should go to the post office and fill out a change-of-address card and have all his mail forwarded to Rugby, North Dakota.

Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk

[athousandinkwells]

He was a dying man staring down on the surgeons trying to save him.

An Abundance of Katherines, John Green

[athousandinkwells]

The story of love, as a noun, reduces down in its essence to a verb. In its most condensed form the story is a command, a verbal imperative: "Love!" Connect, outside yourself, in a positive and fruitful way.

Happily Ever After: The Romance Story in Popular Culture, Catherine Roach

[athousandinkwells]

Love in all its forms can be a trap. Any sane person knows that. Any newborn baby knows it: The mother or care- giver will not always be there, exactly when needed, to satisfy all your de- sires for love and warmth and food and security and pleasure. The one you love will inevitably fail you to some degree. And you’ll screw it up yourself by being unable to intuit or articulate your own needs, because who truly knows their own heart, let alone the heart of someone else? It’s the first Noble Truth of Buddhism: All is suffering or dissatisfaction, imperfectly fulfilled desire. Even on a good day, in a good life, the underlying truth is that love and its goodness are not perfect and unchanging but unstable. Even if the one you love and lust after does prove worthy, one day that person could still dump you and, if not, that person will ultimately die. So really it’s heartbreak ever after. Life and love are a time bomb waiting to blow up in your face. Even if you are happily in love.

Happily Ever After: The Romance Story in Popular Culture, Catherine Roach

[theartofnotwriting-deactivated2]

All human nature vigorously resists grace because grace changes us and the change is painful.

—Flannery O’Connor, The Habit of Being (via theartofnotwriting)

[athousandinkwells]

The dream she'd been having was one she had often: a long, slow, freezing kind of dream, full of darkness and falling and cold that squeezed stony fingers round her heart.

The Black Tattoo, Sam Enthoven

[athousandinkwells]

And suddenly, I was brave. My heart slowed to an even pace. My breath deepened and relaxed. The hardest parts were over.

The Host, Stephanie Meyer

[athousandinkwells]

After a night in fight club, everything in the real world best the volume turned down. Nothing can piss you off. Your word is law and if other people break that law or question you, even that doesn't piss you off.

Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk

[athousandinkwells]

Margo always loved mysteries. And in everything that came afterward, I could never stop thinking that maybe she loved mysteries so much she became one.

Paper Towns, John Green

[athousandinkwells]

"Sometimes," said Charlie, frowning, "I just feel like … I don't know …" He bunched his fists. "Like I want to reach out and smash everything," he said. "Like I want to rip everything up. Tear it to shreds, burn it all down and dance on the ashes. Do you ever feel like that?"

The Black Tattoo, Sam Enthoven

[athousandinkwells]

But the truth was: It wasn't over. We had thought it was over. We had thought we'd won. But instead the fight had only intensified.

Wide Awake, David Levithan

[athousandinkwells]

He nuzzled his face against mine until he found my lips, then he kissed me, slow and gentle, the flow of molten rock swelling languidly in the dark at the center of the east, until my shaking slowed.

The Host, Stephanie Meyer

[larmoyante]

Life, too, is like that. You live it forward, but understand it backward.

Abraham Verghese, Cutting for Stone  (via stxxz)

[athousandinkwells]

Most guys are at fight club because of something they're too scared to fight. After a few fights, you're afraid a lot less.

Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk

[athousandinkwells]

There was a weird kind of shadow on the back of Nick's neck: weirder still, it was moving. Curves and spikes of darkness were drifting across the man's skin.

The Black Tattoo, Sam Enthoven