Connor Stompanato

“I allowed the union between the earth and my body, I let go, and for the first time in my life I appreciated everything for what it was, observed the miracle of it. The earth for being the earth, my hands for being my hands, the plants for growing out of seeds, and the others around me, everyone, with their own rights and dreams and interior worlds.”
― Tomasz Jedrowski, Swimming in the Dark

“Death was always at your back, an infinite darkness coming to swallow you. I felt miniscule. No matter what I did, I would still be just as miniscule. But so long as I could walk, I could outrun death.”
― Wang Xiaobo, Golden Age

“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