harper white

“When I was born, the word for what I was did not exist.”
― Madeline Miller, Circe

“How empty and emptied I felt walking away with all my words still on his floor. Wanting so badly to pick them back up. Take it all back. Wipe away the night, my dumb tears, my endless tumbling out of words. I never meant to give this to you.”
― Mona Awad, Bunny

“Until all my words had spilled to the floor. I was too drunk to pick them up. So leave them there.”
― Mona Awad, Bunny

“I wasn't capable of entrusting myself to true feelings. I didn't know how to be drawn beyond limits. I didn't possess that emotional power that had driven Lila to do all she could to enjoy that day and that night. I stayed behind, waiting. She, on the other hand, seized things, truly wanted them, was passionate about them, played for all or nothing, and wasn't afraid of contempt, mockery, spitting, beatings. She deserved Nino, in other words, because she thought that to love him meant to try to have him, not hope that he would want her.”
― Elena Ferrante, The Story of a New Name