Sofía

“<..> Reading makes you see with clearer eyes and understand the world better. When you do that , you become stronger - the feeling you associate with success. But at the same time with pain. Within the pages, there's much suffering, beyond that we've gone through in our finite experience of life. You'll read about suffering you didn't know existed. Having experienced their pain through words, it becomes a lot harder to focus on pursuing individual happiness and success. Reading makes you deviate further from the textbook definition of success because books don't make us go ahead of or above anyone else; they guide us to stand alongside others. <...>
<..> We become more compassionate. To read is to see things from someone else's perspective, and that naturally leads you to stop and look out for other people, rather than chase after success in the rat race. If more people read, I think the world would become a better place.”
― Hwang Bo-reum, Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop

“a man must learn to forgive—to know what is important, that to live without forgiveness was a kind of death with breathing and movement.”
― Min Jin Lee, Pachinko

“If a person hasn't ever experienced true despair, she grows old never knowing how to evaluate where she is in life; never understanding what joy really is.”
― Banana Yoshimoto, Kitchen

“Grammar is a piano I play by ear.”
― Joan Didion, Joan Didion: Essays & Conversations