Martha

“At the same time, it seemed certain to me that someday I would really want to hear his voice and wouldn't be able to, and I would think back to the time that he had invited me to call him, and it would seem as incomprehensible as an invitation to speak to the dead.”
― Elif Batuman, The Idiot

“Harvard Square looked both new and familiar. I felt like I would have been able to tell just from looking that this configuration of buildings and streets was familiar and meaningful to lots of people, not just me. It was weird to visit a suburb that nobody else every visited or went to, and then to return to these widely known halls and buildings where famous statesmen and writers and scientists had been coming for hundreds of years.”
― Elif Batuman, The Idiot

“Enslavement was not destined to end, and it is wrong to claim our present circumstance—no matter how improved—as the redemption for the lives of people who never asked for the posthumous, untouchable glory of dying for their children. Our triumphs can never compensate for this.”
― Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me

“I'm not happy," Rósza said.
"Why not?"
"I don't know."
"Are you worried about school?"
"No."
"Then why?"
"Because I'm alone."
I felt a wave of exasperation and despair. Was that what all of life was going to be like - you had to be sad when you didn't have a boyfriend?”
― Elif Batuman, The Idiot