Jes

“How often in his life he has found himself a frustrated observer of apparently impenetrable systems, watching other people participate effortlessly in structures he can find no way to enter or even understand. So often that it's practically baseline, just normal existence for him. And this is not only due to the irrational nature of other people, and the consequent irrationality of the rules and processes they devise; it's due to Ivan himself, his fundamental unsuitedness to life. He knows this. He feels himself to have been formed, somehow, with something other than life in mind. He has his good qualities, kind of, but none of them have much to do with living in the world that he actually lives in, the only world that can be said in a fairly real way to exist.”
― Sally Rooney, Intermezzo

“It's strange how autumn is beautiful, but everything that leads to it is tragic.”
― Tove Jansson, Moominvalley in November

“How do they do it? thought Iris. How did they get so good at performing their lives? She didn’t feel human, or like a gorilla. She felt like a mad, stupid monkey wearing human skin, barely passing.”
― Luiza Sauma, Everything You Ever Wanted

“There are probably very few women who would not rather put up with being loved by a clever, charming man, than having him driven away by her dysfunctional family.”
― Jane Austen