Ivy

“It’s a very difficult era in which to be a person, just a real, actual person, instead of a collection of personality traits selected from an endless Automat of characters.”
― Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl

“Do me a favor—look into my eyes?” “Your eyes?” Chu Wanning asked, confused. Mo Ran’s gaze was warm and mild. In his irises was reflected the image of a man in white robes. “Do you see him?” he said. “The most beautiful person in the whole world.”
― Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou, The Husky and His White Cat Shizun: Erha He Ta De Bai Mao Shizun (Novel) Vol. 5

“Death is a strange thing. People live their whole lives as if it does not exist, and yet it's often one of the great motivations for living. Some of us, in time, become so conscious of it that we live harder, more obstinately, with more fury. Some need its constant presence to even be aware of its antithesis. Others become so preoccupied with it that they go into the waiting room long before it has announced its arrival. We fear it, yet most of us fear more than anything that it may take someone other than ourselves. For the greatest fear of death is always that it will pass us by. And leave us there alone.”
― Fredrik Backman, A Man Called Ove

“It's all very well to talk like that,” said Mr. Rafiel. “We, you say? What do you think I can do about it? I can't even walk without help. How can you and I set about preventing a murder? You're about a hundred and I'm a broken-up old crock.”
― Agatha Christie, A Caribbean Mystery