elisabook

“Being around Wang Qiyao gave him a certain peace of mind, and he didn't need to hustle to get that feeling, which was reassuring for him. It was as if he had quietly discovered that things go in cycles and that underneath all the apparent change, everything remains the same.”
― Wang Anyi

“In the early evening, when the lights came on, you could see in all the windows the watchful eyes of frightened people looking out for signs of trouble. But whenever something bad did happen, no one ever saw it coming.”
― Wang Anyi, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai

“Christine has that layer under her skin that cuts off her outside from her inside and allows no communication between the person she once believed she could be and the person she has in fact become. The one does not acknowledge the other's existence. The women from war are like that [...]”
― Tsitsi Dangarembga, This Mournable Body

“How, with all your education, do you come to be more needy than your mother?”
― Tsitsi Dangarembga, This Mournable Body