Connor Stompanato

“But how can a man who has once strayed into Heaven ever hope to make terms with the earth! What passes for happiness with most people seemed contemptible to me. And when I tried, deliberately and sincerely, to live like the rest of them, I stored up enough remorse to last me a very long time.”
― Alain-Fournier, Le Grand Meaulnes

“And I tell you, pleasure and pain have nothing to do with heaven and hell.”
― H.G. Wells, The Island of Dr. Moreau

“This is reality, this is pure fact - this forest, this moss, your hand, the ladybird on my leg, this cannot be taken away, can it? (it will, it was). This has all come together here, no matter how the paths twisted, and fooled each other, and got fouled up, they inevitably met here!”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle

“I have this desire in my gut to be liked by everybody. That always happens when nobody likes you.”
― Irmgard Keun, The Artificial Silk Girl