Karoline V

“The things I have never told anyone absolutely define me and isolate me, the things that I alone know about myself guarantee my boundaries. Here, this is me, there, is everybody else, the people who do not know the things I have never confessed.”
― Jacqueline Harpman, Orlanda

“To understand the ties that attach us to each other, we only have a very limited number of models: so me to me? We approve or disapprove of ourselves, we love or hate ourselves, we do not have any more power over ourselves than over others, it is the same struggle that confronts us, victors or vanquished, with our external enemies and our inner contradictions.”
― Jacqueline Harpman, Orlanda

“Irene tries to keep up with politics wherever possible, attends talks on police intervention, participates in mutual aid, though increasingly she can’t help but feel that her will to be seen taking part is not matched by her actual desire to do do. She used to rage, to get involved with direct action and instigate chaos, but her anger has waned over time, the way laughter eventually becomes forced, and what is left feels unpleasant but nonetheless easier.”
― Julia Armfield, Private Rites

“Don't we all go through life in the same ignorance of who we are, ready to rush at any description of ourselves that would give us the illusion of having a simple identity that can be summed up in a few words?”
― Jacqueline Harpman, Orlanda