Amanda Putman

“And though the implication is that I am the sort who is always careful and preparing, I that that's not right, either' in fact I feel I have not really been living anywhere or anytime, not for the future and not in the past and not at all of-the-moment, but rather in a lonely dream of an oblivion, the nothing-of-nothing drift from one pulse beat to the next, which is really the most bloodless marking-out, automatic and involuntary. [pp. 320-321]”
― Chang-rae Lee, A Gesture Life

“I reminded myself to live for today, not the fears of tomorrow—a promise I had made to myself when I started working in hospice.”
― Hadley Vlahos, The In-Between: Unforgettable Encounters During Life's Final Moments

“I write because I don't know what I think until I read what I say.”
― Flannery O'Connor

“In that moment I understood that the cruelest words in the universe are if only.”
― Lisa See, Peony in Love