Junneth Basa

“Yet each man kills the thing he loves
By each let this be heard
Some do it with a bitter look
Some with a flattering word
The coward does it with a kiss
The brave man with a sword”
― Oscar Wilde, The Ballad of Reading Gaol

“Don’t leave me,” he whispers.
“Oh, for crying out loud—no! I am not going to go!” I shout and it’s cathartic. There, I’ve said it. I am not leaving.
“Really?” His eyes widen.
“What can I do to make you understand I will not run? What can I say?”
He gazes at me, revealing his fear and anguish again. He swallows. “There is one thing you can do.”
“What?” I snap.
“Marry me,” he whispers.”
― E.L. James, Fifty Shades Darker

“I have one head that wants to be good,
And one that wants to be bad.
And always, as soon as I get up,
One of my heads is sad.”
― John Ciardi, You Read to Me, I'll Read to You: Imaginative and Humorous Illustrated Poems for Kids (Ages 4-8) to Read Aloud with Adults

“Because no retreat from the world can mask what is in your face.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West