Dawne L

“I have built a you within me, or you have. I wonder what of me there is in you.”
― Amal El-Mohtar, This Is How You Lose the Time War

“There was a woman, a translator, who wanted to be another person. There was no precise reason. It had always been that way.

She had friends, a family, an apartment, a job. She had enough money, and good health. She had, in other words, a fortunate life, for which she was grateful. The only thing that troubled her was what distinguished her from others.

When she thought of what she possessed, she felt a mild revulsion, because every object, every thing that belonged to her, gave proof of her existence. Every time she remembered something of her past life, she was convinced that another version would have been better.

She considered herself imperfect, like the first draft of a book. She wanted to produce another version of herself, in the same way that she could transform a text from one language into another. At times she had the impulse to remove her presence from the earth, as if it were a thread on the hem of a nice dress, to be cut off with a pair of scissors.”
― Jhumpa Lahiri, In Other Words

“Self-contained,' Gudmund had described him, but what that really meant was that it felt like he'd had a private burden to shoulder for as long as he could remember . . . Worse, it had been accompanied by an equally hard lifelong yearning, a feeling that there had to be more, more than just all this weight.
Because if there wasn't, what was the point?”
― Patrick Ness, More Than This

“You plant a seed thinking it's love. It's only when the thing starts putting down roots that you realise it's not growing the way it should. But by then it's too late. It has sprouted foliage, blossomed and borne demented fruit.
What do you do with the sickness in you?”
― Liz Jensen, The Ninth Life of Louis Drax