Carrie

“But coming out of that sleep was excruciating. My entire life flashed before my eyes in the worst way possible, my mind refilling itself with all my lame memories, every little thing that had brought me to where I was. I'd try to remember something else—a better version, a happy story, maybe, or just an equally lame but different life that would at least be refreshing in its digressions—but it never worked. I was always still me. Sometimes I woke up with my face wet with tears. The only times I cried, in fact, were when I was pulled out of that nothingness, when the alarm on my cell phone went off.”
― Ottessa Moshfegh, My Year of Rest and Relaxation

“The heron is painted a somber Madonna blue, my only criticism of it. Turquoise would have been my choice, I tell him. "Turquoise is what that blue would look like if she divorced the night and went on a fabulous vacation.”
― Karen Russell, Orange World and Other Stories

“The more he talks, the more I realize that I am a maga—a fool who has been taken advantage of.”
― Oyinkan Braithwaite, My Sister, the Serial Killer

“His fish smells fishier than the others- he is sure of it. Perhaps he has been poisoned.”
― Lorrie Moore, Birds of America: Stories