Tisa Ferrante

“Gently, Teacher explained the difference between a lie and a story. A lie was something you told because you were mean or a coward. A story was something you made up out of something that might have happened. Only you didn’t tell it like it was; you told it like you thought it should have been.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“Life is untimely.”
― Christine M. Knight

“كان يتم إعدادي لمنصب شيخ القبيلة... إلا أني هربت آنئذ, من زواج قسري... وهذا ماغيّر مسار حياتي المهني برمّته, ولو أنني بقيت في دياري, لكنت أمسيت اليوم شيخ قبيلة محترماً, ولكنت أملك بطناً منتفخاً والكثير من الماشية والخراف.”
― Nelson Mandela, Conversations With Myself

“I’ve gotten convinced that there’s something kind of timelessly vital and sacred about good writing. This thing doesn’t have that much to do with talent, even glittering talent... Talent’s just an instrument. It’s like having a pen that works instead of one that doesn’t. I’m not saying I’m able to work consistently out of the premise, but it seems like the big distinction between good art and so-so art lies somewhere in the art’s heart’s purpose, the agenda of the consciousness behind the text. It’s got something to do with love. With having the discipline to talk out of the part of yourself that can love instead of the part that just wants to be loved.”
― David Foster Wallace