Aria

“... the only trick of friendship, I think, is to find people who are better than you are - not smarter, not cooler, but kinder and more generous, and more forgiving - and then appreciate them for what they can teach you, and try to listen to them when they tell you something about yourself, no matter how bad - or good - it might be, and to trust them, which is the hardest thing of all. But the best, as well.”
― Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life

“But back then, back on Lispenard Street, I didn't know so much of this. Then, we were only standing and looking up at that red-brick building, and I was pretending that I never had to fear for him, and he was letting me pretend this: that all the dangerous things he could have done, all the ways he could have broken my heart, were in the past, the stuff of stories, that the time that lay behind us was scary, but the time that lay ahead of us was not.”
― Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life

“But if you act like you don’t belong, if you act like you’re apologetic for your own self, then people will start to treat you that way, too.”
― Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life

“and he goes slowly to the wall behind the painting and sees its title;
WILLEM LISTENING TO JUDE TELL A STORY, GREENE STREET
...and he feels his breath abandon him”
― Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life