Aileen

“with that extraordinary gift, that woman’s gift, of making a world of her own wherever she happened to be. She came into a room; she stood, as he had often seen her, in a doorway with lots of people round her. But it was Clarissa one remembered. Not that she was striking; not beautiful at all; there was nothing picturesque about her; she never said anything specially clever; there she was, however; there she was.”
― Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway

“For a moment a phrase tried to take shape in my mouth and my lips parted like a dumb man's, as though there was lore struggling upon them than a wisp of startled air. But they made no sound, and what I had almost remembered was now uncommunicable for ever”
― F Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby: The Only Authorized Edition

“[...] cette terrible interrogation : si je me dis telle que je suis, m'accepterez-vous ?”
― Rey-Lacoste Josyane

“The fantasy never got beyond that - I didn't let it - and though the tears rolled down my face, I wasn't sobbing or out of control. I just waited a bit, then turned back to the car, to drive off to wherever it was I was supposed to be.”
― Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go