Berit Erickson

“He felt bad that he’d never given her the opportunity to get to know herself better. At twenty-nine, she’d become so staunchly, irrevocably Mom to three girls that there was no room for anyone else, and even if there had been room, there wasn’t anyone else, because she hadn’t had the chance to discover any of her other selves prior to the births of their children. She’d given up so much and so little when she agreed to marry him, but he had been so fixated on having her that he had rarely stopped to consider what it would mean for her to allow herself to be had. This was how he saw it: getting her, winning. It wasn’t fair. She deserved more.”
― Claire Lombardo, The Most Fun We Ever Had

“Did I understand it? Not by half, but when it thunders you know your chest is shaking.”
― Leif Enger, I Cheerfully Refuse

“Do you ever worry that being born into money has stunted us?” Alice blanched. “I don’t mean anything by it,” said Delphine. “It’s just—lately I’ve been wondering whether having all of our material needs met from birth has been a positive aspect of our lives. It seems to me it may have resulted in some absence of yearning or striving in us. The quest, I like to call it. When one’s parents or grandparents have already quested and conquered, what is there for subsequent generations to do?”
― Liz Moore, The God of the Woods

“Yet another earthly pleasure that would arguably help to keep me sane, and yet…” “We’re not earthly?” he asked. “Me and the girls?” “The girls and I,” she corrected. “No. You’re ethereal. My intangible everything.”
― Claire Lombardo, The Most Fun We Ever Had