Nicky

“No matter! Such wagging of heads does not confound me, for it is all well known to everyone already, and that which was hid is now revealed.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment

“When it was done and I went to sleep, I lay awake and listened to the clock on your nightstand and the wind outside and understood that I was really home, that in bed with you was home, and something that had been getting close in the dark was suddenly gone. It could not stay. It had been banished. It knew how to come back, I was sure of that, but it could not stay and I could really go to sleep. My heart cracked with gratitude. I think it was the first gratitude I’ve ever really known. I lay there beside you and the tears rolled down the sides of my face and onto the pillow. I loved you then and I love you now and I have loved you every second in between. I don’t care if you understand me. Understanding is vastly overrated, but nobody ever gets enough safety. I’ve never forgotten how safe I felt with that thing gone out of the darkness.”
― Stephen King, Lisey's Story

“Denial is a critical part of the human coping mechanism. Without it, we would all wake up terrified every morning about all the ways we could die. Instead, our minds block out our existential fears by focusing on stresses we can handle—like getting to work on time or paying our taxes. If we have wider, existential fears, we jettison them very quickly, refocusing on simple tasks and daily trivialities.”
― Dan Brown, Inferno

“Mother, when was this coffee dripped?" Ignatius demanded, flapping into the kitchen again.
"Just about a hour ago. Why?"
"It certainly tastes brackish.”
― John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces