“Love knows no virtue, no merit; it loves and forgives and tolerates everything because it must. We are not guided by reason...”
― Venus in Furs
― Venus in Furs
“If neurotic is wanting two mutually exclusive things at one and the same time, then I'm neurotic as hell. I'll be flying back and forth between one mutually exclusive thing and another for the rest of my days.”
― The Bell Jar
― The Bell Jar
“I believe that there is one story in the world, and only one. . . . Humans are caught—in their lives, in their thoughts, in their hungers and ambitions, in their avarice and cruelty, and in their kindness and generosity too—in a net of good and evil. . . . There is no other story. A man, after he has brushed off the dust and chips of his life, will have left only the hard, clean questions: Was it good or was it evil? Have I done well—or ill?”
― East of Eden
― East of Eden
“Why become well-versed in science and the arts if not to impress a lovely little woman?”
― Venus in Furs
― Venus in Furs
“On the meridian of time, there is no injustice: there is only the poetry of motion creating the illusion of truth and drama.”
― Tropic of Cancer
― Tropic of Cancer
Shawn’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Shawn’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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