“Emotions, in my experience, aren't covered by single words. I don't believe in "sadness," "joy," or "regret." Maybe the best proof that the language is patriarchal is that it oversimplifies feeling. I'd like to have at my disposal complicated hybrid emotions, Germanic train-car constructions like, say, "the happiness that attends disaster." Or: "the disappointment of sleeping with one's fantasy." I'd like to show how "intimations of mortality brought on by aging family members" connects with "the hatred of mirrors that begins in middle age." I'd like to have a word for "the sadness inspired by failing restaurants" as well as for "the excitement of getting a room with a minibar." I've never had the right words to describe my life, and now that I've entered my story, I need them more than ever. ”
― Middlesex
― Middlesex
“The most difficult times for many of us are the ones we give ourselves.”
― When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times
― When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times
“In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.”
― Bluebeard's Egg
― Bluebeard's Egg
“So even if the hot loneliness is there, and for 1.6 seconds we sit with that restlessness when yesterday we couldn't sit for even one, that's the journey of the warrior. (68)”
― When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times
― When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times
“Hope and fear come from feeling that we lack something; they come from a sense of poverty. We can’t simply relax with ourselves. We hold on to hope, and hope robs us of the present moment. We feel that someone else knows what's going on, but that there's something missing in us, and therefore something is lacking in our world.”
― When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times
― When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times
Phoebe’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Phoebe’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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