Rafaela

“In the spring he would sometimes wake up at night beside Marianne, and if she was awake too they would move into each other’s arms until he could feel himself inside her. He didn’t have to say anything, except to ask her if it was alright and she always said it was. Nothing else in his life compared to what he felt then. Often he wished he could fall asleep inside her body.”
― Sally Rooney, Normal People

“Diventare. Era un verbo che mi aveva sempre ossessionata, ma me ne accorsi per la prima volta solo in quella circostanza. Io volevo diventare, anche se non avevo mai saputo cosa. Ed ero diventata, questo era certo, ma senza un oggetto, senza una vera passione, senza un’ambizione determinata. Ero voluta diventare qualcosa – ecco il punto – solo perché temevo che Lila diventasse chissà chi e io restassi indietro. Il mio diventare era diventare dentro la sua scia. Dovevo ricominciare a diventare, ma per me, da adulta, fuori di lei.”
― Elena Ferrante, Storia di chi fugge e di chi resta

“It was an old fear, a fear that has never left me: the fear that, in losing pieces of her life, mine lost intensity and importance. And the fact that she didn’t answer emphasized that preoccupation. However hard I tried in my letters to communicate the privilege of the days in Ischia, my river of words and her silence seemed to demonstrate that my life was splendid but uneventful, which left me time to write to her every day, while hers was dark but full.”
― Elena Ferrante, My Brilliant Friend

“I gave a nervous laugh, then said, “Thanks, but at a certain point school is over.” “Not for you: you’re my brilliant friend, you have to be the best of all, boys and girls.”
― Elena Ferrante, My Brilliant Friend