francesca

“Some people, some events, make you lose your head. They're like guillotines, cutting your life in two, the dead and the alive, the before and after.”
― Tomasz Jedrowski, Swimming in the Dark

“There was no question about what had happened. They were both shaken by the sudden realization that they did not belong in this place, that despite their affiliation with the Translation Institute and despite their gowns and pretensions, their bodies were not safe on the streets. They were men at Oxford; they were not Oxford men. But the enormity of this knowledge was so devastating, such a vicious antithesis to the three golden days they’d blindly enjoyed, that neither of them could say it out loud. And they never would say it out loud. It hurt too much to consider the truth. It was so much easier to pretend; to keep spinning the fantasy for as long as they could.”
― R.F. Kuang, Babel

“Because you were right when you said that people can’t always give us what we want from them; that you can’t ask them to love you the way you want. No one can be blamed for that.”
― Tomasz Jedrowski, Swimming in the Dark

“I saved you from the fire, and you saved me from the snakes. We're responsible for each other's lives now."
"Are we?" he asked.
"Sure," she said. "You're mine and I'm yours.
It's written in the stars."
"No escaping that." He leaned over and kissed her, flushed with happiness, because although he did not believe in celestial writings, she did, and that would be enough to guarantee her loyalty.”
― Suzanne Collins, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes