Holly

“I think of her when I do the dishes. Of course I have a dishwasher, so if I ever have to cry, it is not into the sink, quietly like Ada. The sink was her place for this. Facing out of the back of the house, something about the endless potatoes that needed peeling, or the paltriness of the yard, but, like all women maybe, Ada occasionally had a little sniffle and then plink, plink, a few tears would hit the water in the sink. Like all women Ada sometimes had to wipe her nose with her forearm because her hands were wet. There is nothing surprising about this. Though I have to say, I have a stainless-steel Miele dishwasher. And if I have any crying to do, I do it respectably, in front of the TV.”
― Anne Enright, The Gathering

“She admired how thin and delicate Rebecca was. "Like a long-stemmed rose," she said.
I said, "She's more like a long piece of hair with hair.”
― Melissa Bank, The Wonder Spot

“To grow old is to know that not circumstances but consciousness makes the happy and the sad.”
― Iris Murdoch, The Time of the Angels

“Pattie had made him believe in happiness. He was well aware how dangerous this belief was and that it was new. But he was aware too that the grace of happiness comes to those who have faith in it.”
― Iris Murdoch, The Time of the Angels