tia

“For people to actually live by some golden rule, we’d have to be living in a world with no contradictions. But we don’t live in a world like that. No one does. People do what works for them, whatever makes them feel good. But because nobody likes getting stepped on, people start spouting crap about being good to others, being considerate, whatever. Tell me I’m wrong. Everyone does things they don’t want people doing back. Predators eat prey, and school serves no real purpose other than separating the kids who have what it takes from the ones who don’t. That’s the whole point. Everywhere you look, the strong walk all over the weak. Even those fools who think they’ve found the answers by coming up with perfect little sayings about how the world ought to be can’t escape it. Because the real world is everywhere.”
― Mieko Kawakami, Heaven

“Sometimes I hope you’re a man, so you’ll like me because I’m cute, but sometimes I hope you’re a woman because then there’s a better chance you’ll understand me, even if you don’t like me as much.”
― Ruth Ozeki, A Tale for the Time Being

“We had gone back to addressing each other in that particular tone of speech- a cross between exasperation and perpetual resentment- which led people to believe, wrongly, that we were always arguing. I would recognize that tone of conversation between a mother and her daughter anywhere in the world.”
― Annie Ernaux, A Woman's Story

“It is all those differences, however miniscule, that make up my existence.”
― Genki Kawamura, If Cats Disappeared from the World