Phoenix Ocean

“He was clearly aware of only one thing, his own total isolation. The world had fallen out from under him, and he was left alone.

To die is to lose the self and rejoin the rest. He had kept himself, and lost the rest.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia

“We ate well and cheaply and drank well and cheaply and slept well and warm together and loved each other.”
― Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast

“Suddenly it occurred to me that maybe the point of writing wasn't just to record something past but also to prolong the present, like in One Thousand and One Nights, to stretch out the time until the next thing happened.”
― Elif Batuman, The Idiot

“Here is my arm. I want to live.”
― Carole Maso, Ava