Quotes

[snarfield]

  Do not stand           By my grave, and weep.      I am not there,           I do not sleep— I am the thousand winds that blow I am the diamond glints in snow I am the sunlight on ripened grain, I am the gentle, autumn rain. As you awake with morning's hush, I am the swift, up-flinging rush Of quiet birds in circling flight, I am the day transcending night.      Do not stand           By my grave, and cry—      I am not there,           I did not die.

— Clare Harner, Immortality

[snarfield]

When I desire you, a part of me is gone: my want of you partakes of me. So reasons the lover at the edge of eros. The presence of want awakens in him nostalgia for wholeness. 

— Anne Carson, Eros the Bittersweet

[snarfield]

You're hiding in the background, but you want to be found.

— The Strokes, Why Are Sundays So Depressing

[snarfield]

The end doesn't always feel like it. People come and go; they slip through the door when you're not looking and never come back. Sometimes there are no goodbyes.

— Kevin Hazzard, American Sirens

[snarfield]

It is impossible to predict what might happen in a world where you don't know the rules.

— Jacqueline Harpman, I Who Have Never Known Men (translated by Ros Schwartz)

[snarfield]

"But you are a great sinner, that's true," he added almost solemnly, "and your worst sin is that you have destroyed and betrayed yourself for nothing."

— Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment

[snarfield]

I've seen so many beautiful things. I feel like I'm over 100 years old, with what I've experienced. So frankly, I go without fear. I'd do anything to keep living like this.

— Fire of Love

[snarfield]

Most of us prefer to believe we are the active subjects of our victories but only the passive objects of our defeats. We triumph, but it is not really we who fail - we are ruined by forces beyond our control.

— Hernan Diaz, Trust

[snarfield]

We curl up on the couch together, under a blanket, whisper I love you, I missed you, confusing tenses I think.

Lorrie Moore, Self-Help

[snarfield]

Most people fall in love for the first time as teenagers. I guess I’m a late bloomer. Maybe I’m too picky. On May 30, 1995, I finally fell in love for the first time. It was raining that night. When I looked at her I suddenly felt like I was a store. And she was me. Without any warning, she suddenly enters the store.  I don’t know how long she’ll stay. The longer the better, of course.

Fallen Angels

[hannsicle]

I’m terrified of everything, as you can see. So, instead of telling you that truth, I will tell you another truth. A truth that, I think, will be best for you. A truth that will take me out of the equation, but will make its result better. Because I’m starting to wonder if this is what being in love is. Being okay with ripping yourself to shreds, so the other person can stay whole.

The Love Hypothesis (via hannsicle)

[snarfield]

I used to think there was such a thing as emptiness, that there were places in the world one could go and be alone. This, I think, is still true, but the error in my reasoning was to assume that alone was somewhere you could go, rather than somewhere you had to be left.

Julia Armfield, Our Wives Under the Sea

[snarfield]

She had flirted with alcohol for years. Now it was time to consummate the relationship.

Walter Tevis, The Queen's Gambit

[snarfield]

If she knew how often I was thinking about her, she wouldn't feel lonely.

Taylor Jenkins Reid, Daisy Jones & The Six

[bucknakedandthepanda-deactivate]

He remembers those vanished years. As though looking through a dusty window pane, the past is something he could see, but not touch. And everything he sees is blurred and indistinct.

In The Mood For Love (via bucknakedandthepanda)

[snarfield]

There could have been many responses. Hers is not to feel. She can’t afford to. She is doing so well; that’s what everyone says—the teachers, her two aunts, the counselor she sees for a time. Her schoolwork actually improves. But she’s not even remotely coping inside: it takes a certain strength to cry, the confidence that one will eventually be able to staunch the tears. She doesn’t have the luxury of feeling just a little sad. The danger is that she might fall apart and never know how to put the pieces back together. To prevent the possibility, she cauterizes her wounds as best she can, aged seven.

Alain de Botton, The Course of Love

[fallingcat-blog-deactivated2017]

But she did look back, and I love her for that, because it was so human. So she was turned to a pillar of salt. So it goes. People aren’t supposed to look back. I’m certainly not going to do it anymore.

Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut