nika

“The end of exile is the end of being.”
― Angela Carter, The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories

“Her delight in the smallest things was like that of a child. There were days when she ran in the garden, like a child of ten, after a butterfly or a dragon-fly. This courtesan who had cost more money in bouquets than would have kept a whole family in comfort, would sometimes sit on the grass for an hour, examining the simple flower whose name she bore.”
― Alexandre Dumas-fils, La Dame aux Camélias

“My skin has turned to porcelain, to ivory, to steel.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords

“I wondered how it could be that two people who had loved could yet have such a misconception of each other and, with a common grief, grow far apart. There must be something in the nature of love between a man and a woman that drove them to torment and suspicion.”
― Daphne du Maurier, My Cousin Rachel