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ashley
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“I write as if to save somebody’s life. Probably my own. Life is a kind of madness that death makes. Long live the dead because we live in them.”
― A Breath of Life
― A Breath of Life
“And as for the rest, let life happen to you. Believe me: life is in the right, always.”
― Letters to a Young Poet
― Letters to a Young Poet
“When I suddenly see myself in the depths of the mirror, I take fright. I can scarcely believe that I have limits, that I am outlined and defined. I feel myself to be dispersed in the atmosphere, thinking inside other creatures, living inside things beyond myself. When I suddenly see myself in the mirror, I am not startled because I find myself ugly or beautiful. I discover, in fact, that I possess another quality. When I haven't looked at myself for some time, I almost forget that I am human, I tend to forget my past, and I find myself with the same deliverance from purpose and conscience as something that is barely alive. I am also surprised to find as I gaze into the pale mirror with open eyes that there is so much in me beyond what is known, so much that remains ever silent.”
― Near to the Wild Heart
― Near to the Wild Heart
“Everything will be erased in a second. The dictionary of words amassed between cradle and deathbed, eliminated. All there will be is silence and no words to say it. Nothing will come out of the open mouth, neither I nor me. Language will continue to put the world into words. In conversation around a holiday table, we will be nothing but a first name, increasingly faceless, until we vanish into the vast anonymity of a distant generation.”
― The Years
― The Years
“I beg you, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.”
― Letters to a Young Poet
― Letters to a Young Poet
The 52 Book Club: 2026 Challenge
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This group is for those participating in The 52 Book Club's annual challenges! With 52 unique prompts released each year, the goal is to diversify our ...more
Nobel Prize Winners
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From the sublime to the abstruse, from the bestsellers to the rightly unknown. To read the winners of the Nobel Prize in literature is a roller coaste ...more
ashley’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at ashley’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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