DeAnn

“Joy and sorrow often travel the same road and sometimes, whether by grace or misfortune, they meet and become each other's companion.”
― Vaddey Ratner, In the Shadow of the Banyan

“She hated him because he was handsome and charming and they lived in a world where a man didn’t have to be anything else.”
― Ally Carter, The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year

“A woman is always too fat ('we're worried about your health') or too thin ('we're worried about your health'), she is always too young (to know anything) or too old (to be of interest), she is always too feminine (to be taken seriously) or too masculine (to be other than a figure of fun), always too intellectual (to be attractive) or too maternal and interested in children (to be a full adult). The state of being a woman is to be constantly in question, constantly asking oneself what one might do better or differently to be acceptable, never finding a lasting answer.”
― Naomi Alderman, The Strangers

“Because the world had decided that to be soft was to be weak, even though in Joan’s experience being soft and flexible was always more durable than being hard and brittle. Admitting you were afraid always took more guts than pretending you weren’t. Being willing to make a mistake got you further than never trying. The world had decided that to be fallible was weak. But we are all fallible. The strong ones are the ones who accept it.”
― Taylor Jenkins Reid, Atmosphere