twobooksinthebox

“..how hard it is to keep alive someone who doesn't want to stay alive. First you try logic ("You have so much to live for"), and then you try guilt ("You owe me"), and then you try anger, and threats, and pleading ("I'm old; don't do this to an old man"). But then, once they agree, it is necessary that you, the cajoler, move into the realm of self-deception, because you can see that it is costing them, you can see how much they don't want to be here..”
― Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life

“Girls in those stories are always victims, and I am not. And it doesn’t have anything to do with what Strane did or didn’t do to me when I was younger. I’m not a victim because I never wanted to be, and If I didn’t want to be, then I’m not. That’s how it works. The difference between rape and sex is state of mind. You can’t rape the willing, right?”
― Kate Elizabeth Russell, My Dark Vanessa

“And if you’re going to blame your parents for the bad stuff, you also have to give them credit for the good stuff.”
― Matthew Perry, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing

“It’s strange to know that whenever I remember myself at fifteen, I’ll think of this.”
― Kate Elizabeth Russell, My Dark Vanessa