Christina

“But I think I know so well the pain we children clutch to our chests, how it lasts our whole lifetime, with longings so large you can’t even weep. We hold it tight, we do, with each seizure of the beating heart: This is mine, this is mine, this is mine.”
― Elizabeth Strout, My Name Is Lucy Barton

“It doesn't take long to write things of which you know nothing. When you write of actual things, it takes longer, because you have to live them first.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“The younger had always worn a yoke; but is there any yoked creature without its private opinions?”
― George Eliot, MIDDLEMARCH