Merrill Manigault

“Where is it I've read that someone condemned to death says or thinks, an hour before his death, that if he had to live on some high rock, on such a narrow ledge that he'd only room to stand, and the ocean, everlasting darkness, everlasting solitude, everlasting tempest around him, if he had to remain standing on a square yard of space all his life, a thousand years, eternity, it were better to live so than to die at once. Only to live, to live and live! Life, whatever it may be!”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment

“Loss is essential. Loss is part and parcel of that necessary calamity called life.”
― Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance

“There is satisfaction in knowing that something good and right and true was part of you. That you had the blessing, gift, good fortune, perfect luck, to know someone like this, to pass through fire and water and stone and sky together and emerge, all of you, strong enough to hold on, strong enough to let go. (Cassia)”
― Ally Condie, Reached

“Whenever we got a glimpse, their faces looked indecently revealed, as though we were used to seeing women in veils.”
― Jeffrey Eugenides, The Virgin Suicides