#raisedamongbooks

[raisedamongbooks]

She didn’t find him unpleasant, but her heart was like ashes from which the flame of love could no longer be lit.

-Cixin Liu, “Three Body Problem”

[raisedamongbooks]

I thought that life was truly an accident among accidents in the universe.

-Ye Wenjie

[raisedamongbooks]

[raisedamongbooks]

And when two such people encounter each other, and their eyes meet, the past and the future become unimportant. There is only that moment, and the incredible certainty that everything under the sun has been written by one hand only. It is the hand that evokes love, and creates a twin soul for every person in the world. Without such love, one's dreams would have no meaning.

Paulo Coehlo, The Alchemist

[raisedamongbooks]

Will you remember that I existed, and that I  stood next to you here like this?

Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

[raisedamongbooks]

I know I'm a little different from everyone else, but I'm still a human being. That's what I'd like you to realize. I'm just a regular person, not some monster. I feel the same things everyone else does, act the same way. Sometimes, though, that small difference feels like an abyss. But I guess there's not much I can do about it.

Haruki Murakami, Kakfa on the Shore

[raisedamongbooks]

Haruki Murakami, "1Q84"

[raisedamongbooks]

If you're reading this, welcome back to reality. This is where all that glorious, unlimited potential of your youth has led. All that unfulfilled promise. Here's what you've done with your life.

Chuck Palahniuk, Diary

[raisedamongbooks]

Today's weather is partly furious with occasional fits of rage.

Chuck Palahniuk, Diary

[raisedamongbooks]

Because, when you know that language, it's easy to understand that someone in the world awaits you, whether it's in the middle of the desert or in some great city.

Paulo Coehlo, The Alchemist

[raisedamongbooks]

It's not me but the world that's deranged. Yes, that settles it.

Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

[raisedamongbooks]

Maybe I can look at it this way--the problem is not with me but with the world around me. It's not that my consciousness or mind has given rise to some abnormality, but rather that some kind of incomprehensible power has caused the world around me to change.

Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

[raisedamongbooks]

Yet I liked him too much--way too much, and I ripped him out of my heart so it wouldn't get to hurt me more than it did.

The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

[raisedamongbooks]

I live my own life and nurse my own wounds. It's not the best way to live. But it's the way I am.

Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex

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Ours is essentially a tragic age , so we refuse to take it tragically. The cataclysm has happened, we are among the ruins, we start to build up new little habitats, to have new little hopes. It is rather hard work: there is now no smooth road into the future: but we go round, or scramble over the obstacles. We've got to live, no matter how many skies have fallen.

D.H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley’s Lover

[raisedamongbooks]

Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.

Paulo Coehlo, The Alchemist