Connor Stompanato

“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

“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

“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

“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