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“She really does hate parties and crowds and she really does love people one by one in such a way that she's bound to always be involved in parties and crowds.”
― Eve Babitz, Slow Days, Fast Company: The World, the Flesh, and L.A.

“You’re a proper little princess, aren’t you? Big estate in Brighton, summers in Toulouse, porcelain china on your shelves and Assam in your teacups? How could you understand? Your people reap the fruits of the Empire. Ours don’t. So shut up, Letty, and just listen to what we’re trying to tell you. It’s not right what they’re doing to our countries.’ His voice grew louder, harder. ‘And it’s not right that I’m trained to use my languages for their benefit, to translate laws and texts to facilitate their rule, when there are people in India and China and Haiti and all over the Empire and the world who are hungry and starving because the British would rather put silver in their hats and harpsichords than anywhere it could do some good.”
― R.F. Kuang, Babel

“In the years to come, Robin would return so many times to this night. He was forever astonished by its mysterious alchemy, by how easily two badly socialized, restrictively raised strangers had transformed into kindred spirits in a span of minutes.”
― R.F. Kuang, Babel

“...like a swan and its reflection on the surface of a lake.”
― Gilbert Adair, The Dreamers