Athulya

“Time was a wave, almost cruel in its relentlessness.”
― Han Kang, The Vegetarian

“The feeling that she had never really lived in this world caught her by surprise. It was a fact. She had never lived. Even as a child, as far back as she could remember, she had done nothing but endure. She had believed in her own inherent goodness, her humanity, and lived accordingly, never causing anyone harm. Her devotion to doing things the right way had been unflagging, all her successes had depended on it, and she would have gone on like that indefinitely. She didn't understand why, but faced with those decaying buildings and straggling grasses, she was nothing but a child who had never lived.”
― Han Kang, The Vegetarian

“Grief was what you owed the dead for the necessary crime of living on without them.”
― Kamila Shamsie, Home Fire

“Sexual shame is in itself a kind of death.”
― Alison Bechdel, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic