Steph

“Tonight I can smell the season the way it's usually only possible to at the very first moments of its return, before you're used to it, when you've forgotten its smell, then there it is back in the air and the flow of things shifting and resettling again.”
― Ali Smith, The Whole Story and Other Stories

“[...] its small squares of fast-passing light, the early evening windows of the lives of hundreds of others.”
― Ali Smith, The Whole Story and Other Stories

“Back in New York I took full advantage of my status as a native speaker. I ran my mouth to shop clerks and listened in on private conversations, realising I’d gone an entire month without hearing anyone complaint that they were “stressed out”.”
― David Sedaris, Me Talk Pretty One Day

“The next summer we went to France for six weeks, and I added another 420 words, most of them found in the popular gossip magazine, ‘Voici’. “Man-eater”, I’d say. “Gold digger, roustabout, louse”.
“Who are you talking about?” my neighbors would ask. “What social climber? Where?”
― David Sedaris, Me Talk Pretty One Day