Justin •••

“My dad was blown up by a tank in Poland, but he left us the car. You want a ride?”
― Claire North, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

“At Christmastime I had got out the little artificial fir tree from deep inside the closet and assembled and decorated it with my daughter. That tree, its tiny lights twinkling. Her, motionless before it for a long time, rapt in its multicoloured drops of light. And me, standing back, looking on. To her, it was the most beautiful of sights, countless joys shimmering invitingly in their splendour. It was a cheap tree that Fojino had bought at a local supermarket when she was a year old, saying, 'This'll do for now, won't it? It'll only get broken with her touching it. They're really quite expensive.”
― Yūko Tsushima, Territory of Light

“A farmhouse was blazing away right before us. It took an incredibly long time to burn to the ground. One could almost see the history of that house going up in flames along with its roof and pillars.”
― Osamu Dazai, Early Light

“He turned to Maher. "That's how I know you won't make it: you carry stories around. You've got a storybook idea about how it'll end up, you've got a storybook view of the world."

Maher shrugged. "Books are good for the soul," he said. "Books will ween you off cruelty."

"And what will you be left with then?" Mohamed asked.”
― Omar El Akkad, What Strange Paradise