let me tell you

here's to you. to us. to our memories. to the things we wanted to say and the things we wanted to hear but didn't.

[flowerytale]

Virginia Woolf, from The Waves

[luthienne]

Naomi Shihab Nye, from Red Suitcase; "Sincerely"

[weltenwellen]

Anaïs Nin, The Diary of Anaïs Nin, 1931–1934

[thoughtkick]

“Don’t be a fool. Don’t give up something important to hold onto someone who can’t even say they love you.”

— Sarah Dessen, Someone Like You

[luthienne]

Mahmoud Darwish, from The Butterfly's Burden; "I Have a Seat in the Abandoned Theater" (tr. from the Arabic by Fady Joudah)

[Text ID: I say: How is this my concern? I'm a spectator / He says: No spectators at chasm's door ... and no / one is neutral here. And you must choose / your part in the end]

[luthienne]

Arundhati Roy, from Power Politics

[Text ID: The trouble is that once you see it, you can't unsee it. And once you've seen it, keeping quiet, saying nothing, becomes as political an act as speaking out. There's no innocence. Either way, you're accountable.]

[letmetellyousomestuff]

I like you.

[tendermimi]

— Franz Kafka, Diaries 1910-1923

[letmetellyousomestuff]

How do you let go of people you already outgrow without hurting them?

[sandersstudies]

Every 21st century piece of writing advice: Make us CARE about the character from page 1! Make us empathize with them! Make them interesting and different but still relatable and likable!

Every piece of classic literature: Hi. It's me. The bland everyman whose only purpose is to tell you this story. I have no actual personality. Here's the story of the time I encountered the worst people I ever met in my life. But first, ten pages of description about the place in which I met them.

[sandersstudies]

Modern writing advice: Yes your protagonist should have flaws but ultimately we should root for them and like them from the beginning :)

Charles Dickens: Here is the worst ugliest rudest meanest nastiest bitch you’ve ever met in your life.

[sandersstudies]

Modern writing advice: Make sure your POV character goes through a significant arc! Make sure they are changed by the narrative! Make sure they learn a lesson!

Narrators of every book of the 19th century: the lesson I learned is these people fucking suck, sayonara you freaks

[sandersstudies]

Modern writing advice: It’s all about the character overcoming obstacles and learning! They learn their lesson so they can fix their mistakes and make good choices in the future! It’s a character arc! It’s called growth! Readers love it!

Everyone from ancient times through the 19th century: would you like to watch a Guy fuck up twenty times in a row

[coldgoldlazarus]

[luthienne]

Tony Hoagland, from Application for Release from the Dream; “The Complex Sentence”

[quotefeeling]

“The funny thing is when you start feeling happy alone, that’s when everyone decides to be with you.”

— Jim Carrey

[letmetellyousomestuff]

I hate the feeling of not being enough despite me trying my best to be just that.

I hate how they can't see that I'm trying my best, that all my efforts just passed by unnoticed and then they call me out for all the things that I lack when I'm not just those things — I'm not those things.

Why can't they just see you for what you are, who you are and not the person they want you to be because that's not you and will never be.

[letmetellyousomestuff]

I dislike you for disrupting my peace. Why come back only to leave me hanging? Is this some sort of revenge? If so, then you got it. I hope you're happy.

[letmetellyousomestuff]

doesn't it suck when you meet someone that you're ready to open your heart to after closing it for a long time but for some reason they stopped talking to you?

Don't you just hate it? When you're living peacefully, content, yes, single but not lonely, and suddenly, this guy starts talking to you and you click, talk for hours and share stories, flirt for days on end, when you're not just friends, not close to lovers, just something in between, but it's all good, because there's this mutual understanding, and suddenly, it's just dead silence. He's gone. And you're left there wondering, what happened, that after disrupting your peace he'll disappear just like that? you reach out to try and hold on to that something in between and he responds but it doesn't feel like a response that you can continue conversing with, it's a dead end, like answering a phone call for a second then hanging it up.

What was that? Some sort of trial and error? Pass time? What?

[savxge]

[julia-wanders]

[quotefeeling]

“As a small child, I felt in my heart two contradictory feelings, the horror of life and the ecstasy of life.”

— Charles Baudelaire