Melanie

“Guilt is a commando who arrives in stealth and then sabotages everything.”
― Scott Turow, Innocent

“And maybe in the end, the kindest possible thing you could do for yourself is to know that there is nothing that holds us back more than the important words that went unspoken, the deep instincts that went unfelt, the callings that went unanswered. Your life is reaching toward you, and maybe the kindest possible thing you could do is reach back.”
― Brianna Wiest, When You're Ready, This Is How You Heal

“I know that your instinct is to do whatever you can to earn the good graces of everyone you can, but that is also the impulse that will rob you of your time, your energy and your sanity.”
― Brianna Wiest, When You're Ready, This Is How You Heal

“I cling to the Milan women's understanding of these literary heroines as mothers. I wish I had learned to read them in this way years ago--with the same complicated, ambivalent, essential freedom that a daughter feels when she looks at her mother, understanding her as a figure that she simultaneously resists and depends on; a figure that she uses, cruelly and lovingly and gratefully, as the base from which to become something more.”
― Jia Tolentino, Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion