Isabel

“I felt the currents move. The grains of sand whispered against each other. His wings were lifting. The darkness around us shimmered with clouds of his gilded blood. Beneath my feet were the bones of a thousand years. I thought: I cannot bear this world a moment longer.

Then, child, make another.”
― Madeline Miller, Circe

“Coriolanus felt sure he’d spotted his first mockingjay, and he disliked the thing on sight.”
― Suzanne Collins, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

“There is no explaining this simple truth about life: you will forget much of it. The painful things you were certain you’d never be able to let go? Now you’re not entirely sure when they happened, while the thrilling parts, the heart-stopping joys, splintered and scattered and became something else. Memories are then replaced by different joys and larger sorrows, and unbelievably, those things get knocked aside as well, until one morning you’re picking cherries with your three grown daughters and your husband goes by on the Gator and you are positive that this is all you’ve ever wanted in the world.”
― Ann Patchett, Tom Lake

“You knew I'd write a book about you someday. You said once that I'd dredged up the whole hit parade minus you.
I'll never know how you'd tell it.
For me it begins here. Like this.”
― Lily King, Heart the Lover