gil

“There was a calculated and solid nucleus to begin with but then everything became fluent and innocuous. And Otávio would look at her, oblivious of himself. He would end up in a state of anguish, for if he wanted to touch her he couldn't, there was an intangible circle around that creature, which was impenetrable and kept her apart. Bitterness then possessed him because he could not perceive her as a woman and his quality as a man became futile, and he was incapable of being anything other than a man.”
― Clarice Lispector, Near to the Wild Heart

“I am tired of being a person. Not just tired of being the person I was, but any person at all. I like watching people, but I don’t like talking to them, dealing with them, pleasing them, or offending them. I am tired.”
― Susan Sontag, I, etcetera

“Let no one mistake us for the fruit of violence - but that violence, having passed through the fruit, failed to spoil it.”
― Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

“There are photographs of both of us, taken at about the same time: I am eighteen, she is nearly forty. Today I could almost be her mother and the grandmother of that sad-eyed girl. I am so sorry for them – for me because I am so young and I understand nothing; for her because her future is closed and she has never understood anything.”
― Simone de Beauvoir, A Very Easy Death