madelyn

“I thought I should rein my sadness in, keep it small, not let it surround me, or spread to my bloodstream or thereabouts. Turn it into a ball, bullet or pellet. Swallow it quick.”
― Mercè Rodoreda, La plaça del Diamant

“I was forced to acknowledge too late, much too late, that I too had loved, that I was capable of suffering, and that I was human after all.”
― Jacqueline Harpman, I Who Have Never Known Men

“Do tears not yet spilled
wait in small lakes?

Or are they invisible rivers
that run toward sadness?”
― Pablo Neruda, The Book of Questions

“I’ve never written, though I thought I wrote, never loved, though I thought I loved, never done anything but wait outside the closed door.”
― Marguerite Duras, The Lover