Raluca

“He wants to accomplish something in life, learn languages, see the world, read a thousand books, he wants to discover whether there is any core, but sometimes it's hard to think and read when one is stiff and sore after a difficult fishing voyage, wet and cold after twelve hours' working in the meadows, when his thoughts can be so heavy that he can hardly lift them, then it's a long way to the core.”
― Jón Kalman Stefánsson, Himnaríki og helvíti

“I like to pay taxes. With them, I buy civilization.”
― Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

“Motherlands are castles made of glass. In order to leave them, you have to break something – a wall, a social convention, a cultural norm, a psychological barrier, a heart. What you have broken will haunt you. To be an emigré, therefore, means to forever bear shards of glass in your pockets. It is easy to forget they are there, light and minuscule as they are, and go on with your life, your little ambitions and important plans, but at the slightest contact the shards will remind you of their presence. They will cut you deep.”
― Elif Shafak, How to Stay Sane in an Age of Division

“Ending a novel is almost like putting a child to sleep—it can't be done abruptly.”
― Colm Tóibín