Bethal

“nobody talked loudly about growing up in a council flat on a skyscraper estate with a single mother who worked as a cleaner
nobody talked loudly about never having gone on a single holiday, like ever
nobody talked loudly about never having been on a plane, seen a play or the sea, or eaten in a restaurant, with waiters
nobody talked loudly about feeling too uglystupidfatpoor or just plain out of place, out of sorts, out of their depth”
― Bernardine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other

“We mortals, men and women, devour many a disappointment between breakfast and dinner-time; keep back the tears and look a little pain about the lips, and in answer to inquiries say, ‘oh nothing!’ Pride helps us and pride is not a bad thing when it only urges us to hide our own hurts – not to hurt others.”
― George Eliot, Middlemarch