Isabelle

“The stars incline us, they do not bind us.”
― Chloe Gong, These Violent Delights

“Why do you lie so much? And about the weirdest little things?", my mother always asked me. "I don’t know", I always said. But I did know. It was very simple. Because it was a better story.”
― Mona Awad, Bunny

“That was when it happened, exactly then, the end of a phase, the mental click as the last strand of my private resistance gave way; when I admitted, looking down at his candid blue eyes: there's nothing I wouldn't do for you, absolutely nothing.”
― Mary Kelly

“Hold your finger to the sky with so much force it lengthens like a spine. Look up to the point of it and beyond. There. That tiny patch of the world, no bigger than the tip of your finger. At first glance, it might look like one flat color. Blue, or gray, or maybe even orange.

But it's much more complex than that. Squint. See the daubs of lilac. The streak of sage no wider than a hyphen. That butterscotch smear and the faint wash of carnelian. All of them coming together to swirl at the point just above your finger.

Breathe them in. Let them settle in your lungs. Those are the colors of right now.”
― Emily X.R. Pan, The Astonishing Color of After