Dheandra Nicolette

“It wasn’t the heft and rush of action that left Leila shellshocked, but its sudden ceasing; the quieting inside the room because that’s when she knew there was nothing to save.”
― Kia Abdullah, Next of Kin

“I watched Toby in his young twenties reject everyone who seemed like anything outside of totally conventional, and that was how he’d ended up with Rachel, who he thought was normal. And yes, if you believe his version, she was a vile kind of ex-wife (all ex-wives are vile, to hear it), but she was also someone who had been driven crazy. Maybe it was the insult of childbirth. Maybe it was the overwhelming unfairness of what happens to a woman’s status and body and position in the culture once she’s a mother. All those things can drive you crazy if you’re a smart person. If you are a smart woman, you cannot stand by and remain sane once you fully understand, as a smart person does, the constraints of this world on a woman. I couldn’t bear it. I saw it too clearly and so I retreated from it. Rachel, she endured. She tried. And she got the punishment.”
― Taffy Brodesser-Akner, Fleishman Is in Trouble

“If you want to experience love, then you have to be ready for pain. One doesn’t come without the other. If I didn’t love you, I wouldn’t have to worry about losing you. If you want laughter, expect tears.”
― Harlan Coben, Home

“Life is amazing. Right? It’s easy to forget it, but then you have these moments that remind you how incredible it is that we even fucking exist. The rest of it—all the crap we worry about, the cerebral contortions we go through to try to make meaning of existence—is nothing at all compared to the miracle that we can do this. Just being together with other human beings. Dancing. Alive.”
― Janelle Brown, What Kind of Paradise