cy > cy 's Quotes

“The identity of the Filipino today is of a person asking what is his identity.”
― Nick Joaquín, Culture and History

“Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth.”
― Albert Camus

“Kung hindi malaya ang bagay na may buhay, dapat man lang sana ay malawak ang kinalalagyan nito," sabi ko.

"Pero kulungan parin ang kulungan, gaano man ito kalaki," sagot n'ya.”
― Bob Ong, Si

“I used to advertise my loyalty and I don't believe there is a single person I loved that I didn't eventually betray.”
― Albert Camus, The Fall

“In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion."

[The Minotaur]”
― Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays

“I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world.”
― Albert Camus, L'Étranger

“Identity is the history that has gone into bone and blood and reshaped the flesh. Identity is not what we were but what we have become what we are at this moment.”
― Nick Joaquín, Culture and History

“I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart. I am, I am, I am.”
― Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

“This was what she had needed. Not forgiveness, not a balm for this strange writhing fury inside her, but the promise of someone to care for--to love--that she could not harm. Even if she had to. Even if she tried.”
― Tasha Suri, The Jasmine Throne

“Malini wanted to explain that being monstrous wasn't inherent, as Priya seemed to believe it to be. It was something placed upon you: a chain or a poison, bled into you by unkind hands.”
― Tasha Suri, The Jasmine Throne

“Power doesn’t have to be the way the regent and your rebels make it be,” Priya said eventually, making do with her own artless words, her own simple knowledge of the way the world worked. “Power can be looking after people. Keeping them safe, instead of putting them into danger.”
― Tasha Suri, The Jasmine Throne

“Oh, vows could be broken. Of course they could. And yet Priya was… not entirely a safe person to lie to. And worse still, Malini did not want to break a promise to her.
There was a sound, somewhere below them. Priya’s jaw hardened.
“Promise me this, or one way or another, you die here.”
“You’ll kill me after all, Priya?”
“No, you fool woman,” Priya said, eyes blazing. “No. Never me.”
― Tasha Suri, The Jasmine Throne

“When she is crowned in jasmine, in needle-flower, in smoke and in fire, he will kneel before he and name her," repeated Rao, in common Zaban. And suddenly Malini was shivering, every inch of her afire with a mad elation that rose up, up in her blood. "He will give the princess of Parijat her fate: He will say..." He swallowed. Raised his eyes, which were fierce and wet. "Name who shall sit upon the throne, princess. Name the flower of empire. Name the head that shall reign beneath a crown of poison. Name the hand that lit the pyre." The silence was deep; a drumming tense silence, drawn taut as a bowstring. "He will name her thus," finished Rao. "And she will know.”
― Tasha Suri, The Jasmine Throne

“Subtlety was cultivated out of necessity, by people who knew that power needed to be treated with care --who understand how easily it could be stolen or taken.”
― Tasha Suri, The Jasmine Throne

“This face. This face right in front of me. The face you've shown me, the fact that you kissed me. I know it. I know you,' said Priya, 'I know exactly who you are. There are other versions of you that I don't know. But this one...' Her fingers were against Malini's lips. 'This one is mine.”
― Tasha Suri, The Jasmine Throne

“You think being called a whore shames me? You think you haven't bartered your body for your own ends? What do you think pouring death down your throat is?”
― Tasha Suri, The Jasmine Throne

“The moment I saw you, I felt a tug. You are the feeling of falling, the tidal waters, the way a living thing will always turn, seeking light. It isn’t that I think you are good or kind, or even that I love you. It is only that, the moment I saw you, I knew I would seek you out. Just as I sought the deathless waters. Just as I sought my brother. Just as I seek all things—without thought, with nothing but want.”
― Tasha Suri, The Jasmine Throne

“I don’t know anything about birthing,” Priya confessed, holding Bhumika’s hand tight.
“Oh, good,” said Bhumika. “Well. Neither do I. A shame that we’re going to need to learn like this.”
― Tasha Suri, The Jasmine Throne

“I miss you more than I remember you.”
― Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

“Too much joy, I swear, is lost in our desperation to keep it.”
― Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

“I love you. I love you. I love you. I'll write it in waves. In skies. In my heart. You'll never see, but you will know. I'll be all the poets, I'll kill them all and take each one's place in turn, and every time love's written in all the strands it will be to you.”
― Amal El-Mohtar, This Is How You Lose the Time War

“I can't believe I said it out loud. The truth doesn't set you free, you know. It makes you feel awkward and embarrassed and defenseless and red in the face and horrified and petrified and vulnerable. But free? I don't feel free. I feel like shit.”
― Melina Marchetta, Saving Francesca

“Do you think people have noticed that I'm around?”
“I notice when you're not. Does that count?”
― Melina Marchetta, Saving Francesca

“Just ask how I'm feeling, I want to say. Just ask and I may tell you.

But no one does.”
― Melina Marchetta, Saving Francesca

“I miss the Stella girls telling me what I am. That I'm sweet and placid and accommodating and loyal and nonthreatening and good to have around. And Mia. I want her to say, "Frankie, you're silly, you're lazy, you're talented, you're passionate, you're restrained, you're blossoming, you're contrary."

I want to be an adjective again. But I'm a noun.

A nothing. A nobody. A no one.”
― Melina Marchetta, Saving Francesca

“The depression belongs to all of us. I think of the family down the road whose mother was having a baby and they went around the neighborhood saying, "We're pregnant." I want to go around the neighborhood saying, "We're depressed." If my mum can't get out of bed in the morning, all of us feel the same. Her silence has become ours, and it's eating us alive.”
― Melina Marchetta, Saving Francesca

“Memory is a funny thing. It tricks you into believing that you've forgotten important moments, and then when you're raking your brain for a bit of information that might make sense of something else, it taps you on the head and says, "Remember when you told me to put that memory in the green rubbish bin? Well, I didn't, I put it in the black recycling tub, and it's coming your way again.”
― Melina Marchetta, Saving Francesca

“When I grow up, I'm going to be my mother.”
― Melina Marchetta, Saving Francesca

“He bursts out laughing. It's short, as if he regretted allowing me to make him laugh, but the satisfaction's already mine.”
― Melina Marchetta, Saving Francesca

“That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you're not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald