Helen

“For the true bookworm, life doesn’t really begin until you get hold of your first book. Until then – well, you’re just waiting, really. You don’t even know for what, at that stage – if you did, you would be making more noise about it and be less covered in court-shoe-shaped bruises. But it’s books.”
― Lucy Mangan, Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading

“Confession: What I understand that They—most everyone, really—don’t, is that suicide isn’t an act of selfishness. Sometimes the hurt/pain/shame/loss is so much, so constant, and with no guarantee that it’ll ever dissolve, sometimes the cost/benefit analysis of life/death truly feels like it’ll only ever work out in in favour of death.”
― Michelle Hodkin, The Becoming of Noah Shaw

“Ned, the thing about seeking forgiveness from someone you’ve hurt is that you’re hurting them again by asking for something else from them. If you’re sorry, say you’re sorry, apologise, let them know you’ve realised the enormity of what you’ve done and won’t do it again, but leave it there. Don’t expect anything else from them. Don’t require them to say they forgive you so you can feel better. Or expect them to move on according to your timetable. Or to even give the whole thing any kind of headspace. Apologise and then leave it. Sit with how you feel about not being forgiven despite how sorry you are. Don’t make it worse.”
― Dorothy Koomson, Tell Me Your Secret

“But I’ve come to believe we create our own curses and carry them through life because we’ve been told it’s our lot. We’re taught to relive our mothers’ heartaches, to accept their sufferings as our own, and pass them on to the next generation, again and again, until one of us at long last says no, and the curse is finally broken.”
― Barbara Davis, The Keeper of Happy Endings