Joël Wernli

“things will never be as good as we hoped or as bad as we feared.”
― Ian McEwan, Lessons

“He knew these last lines by heart and mouthed them now in the darkness. My reason for life. Not living, but life. That was the touch. And she was his reason for life, and why he must survive.”
― Ian McEwan, Atonement

“And now that you don't have to be perfect, you can be good.”
― John Steinbeck, East of Eden

“Finally he spoke the three simple words that no amount of bad art or bad faith can every quite cheapen. She repeated them, with exactly the same slight emphasis on the second word, as though she were the one to say them first. He had no religious belief, but it was impossible not to think of an invisible presence or witness in the room, and that these words spoken aloud were like signatures on an unseen contract.”
― Ian McEwan, Atonement