Melissa Williams

“This was one of those things that made social contact so difficult for Jonathon. He knew he had to react to the news – which he didn’t at all mind – as though he didn’t at all mind. Unfortunately, everything anyone said to him was processed through his brain, which also checked and sifted his replies before he could use them. Now that he had thought about it, his reaction couldn’t be spontaneous, which meant that he would have to pretend to feel the way he actually did feel.”
― Christopher Shevlin, The Perpetual Astonishment of Jonathon Fairfax

“the key to happiness – or that even more desired thing, calmness – lies not in always thinking happy thoughts. No. That is impossible. No mind on earth with any kind of intelligence could spend a lifetime enjoying only happy thoughts. The key is in accepting your thoughts, all of them, even the bad ones. Accept thoughts, but don’t become them.”
― Matt Haig, Reasons to Stay Alive

“Tabby Originally the name of a silk material with a ‘watered’ surface, giving an effect of wavy lines. This was later applied to a brownish cat with dark stripes, because its markings resemble this material. The ultimate source of the name is in Arabic al-’attabiya, literally ‘quarter of (Prince) ‘Attab’, this being the district of Baghdad where the fabric was first made.”
― Susie Dent, Interesting Stories about Curious Words: From Stealing Thunder to Red Herrings

“And what happens, when ‘it’ finds you, is that something happens to your eyes. When you get angry, they go very pale blue, like bone china made of real bones, and your anger becomes so big that it fills the house, and everyone lives in it. You caught it, off the explosion. You are exploding, now. You are trying to be bigger than the explosion. Because you never stopped being scared of the explosion. Anger is just fear, brought to the boil.”
― Caitlin Moran, How to Build a Girl