Nicole

“All prices of all things—at least, useless beautiful things like rare books—are inherently absurd, rooted in the human imagination and in the all-too-human predilection to desperately want what others value highly, and to scorn what others fail to value.”
― Joyce Carol Oates, The Doll-Master: And Other Tales of Terror

“What are we to make of the stubborn bitter truth that one's legitimacy is judged by whether one appears to be ''happy'' or ''unhappy''; that one's work is somehow assessed in terms of the spiritual uplift it offers? ''Happiness'' is predicated as a cultural norm, so that any deviation from it, however justified, however inescapable, arouses not only pity but reproach. As true as this might be for male writers, it is all the more true for female writers, since there is a violation of some unspoken rule in the very fact that a woman writes - that is, thinks.”
― Joyce Carol Oates

“I live by the maxim, love people when they least expect it and least deserve it. That how you change someone’s life forever.”
― Mark Batterson, If: Trading Your If Only Regrets for God's What If Possibilities

“Suicide is in fact a consoling thought. Suicide is the secret door by which you can exit the world at any time—it’s wholly up to you. For who can prevent you, if suicide is truly your wish? Who has the moral authority,”
― Joyce Carol Oates, A Widow's Story