#quotebigquestion

[wastedwinter]

– Jamaica Kincaid from Lucy

[wastedwinter]

Ocean Vuong, from “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous”

[wastedwinter]

I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975.... That was a long time ago, but it’s wrong what they say about the past.... Looking back now, I realize I have been peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years.

—Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner

[wastedwinter]

'Hiatus' by Ely Shipley

[wastedwinter]

Being aware of yourself and Your place within the world

Sean Brophy, from “The Awakening and other poems”

[wastedwinter]

As for what will become of my body that will depend on who its ownership falls to, as I will be incapable of preference or selfhood.

– Christopher Robinson, from “The Death of My Grandfather”

[wastedwinter]

Lucia picked up a chair and threw it at her mother, whereupon Giorgio took her to a medical clinic and checked her in. “He thereby changed her fate,” Shloss writes. That is a strong judgment, but it is true in part, because the minute an emotionally disturbed person is placed in an institution the story enters a new phase, in which we see not just the original problem but its alterations under institutionalization: the effects of drugs, the humiliation of being locked up and supervised, the consequent change in the person’s self-image and in other people’s image of him or her.

A fire in the Brain - The New Yorker

[wastedwinter]

I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.

Jack London