Alexandra Ray

“I think back to my dream of the boy, because in it I find solace. I like that word. I'm going to make it my word of the year. There is just something about that boy that makes me feel like I belong. Belong. Long to be. Weird word, but semantics aside, it is up there with solace.”
― Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road

“It's a promise to be better than I was. It's a vow that if I can't be anything else to you, at least I can be a weapon in your hand. And I guess it's a reminder that wanting and deserving aren't the same thing.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Ruin and Rising

“Contentment is a state of mind and body when the two work in harmony, and there is no friction. The mind is at peace, and the body also. The two are sufficient to themselves. Happiness is elusive -- coming perhaps once in a life-time -- and approaching ectasy.”
― Daphne du Maurier, Frenchman's Creek

“Evil isn't beautiful on its own. You know?'

'Well, good people are sometimes ugly-' Blanche said at last.

'I don't know about that. Not really,' Bear shook his head. 'If the good's there, and you look for it, you'll see it in some way.'

'I think Bear is right,' Rose said decidedly. 'Fairy tales teach you that. No one who's really good ever stays ugly. It's always a disguise.”
― Regina Doman, The Shadow of the Bear