Therése

“...& she, armed with both & abandoning the joys of reason that had meant so much to her as well as me, made a suitably advantageous marriage with an ironmonger with a face like an anvil & a soul like a slag, & so I never saw her freckles fade, her auburn hair dull, never had to watch our love turn to that non-colour, white.”
― Richard Flanagan, Gould's Book of Fish: A Novel in Twelve Fish

“Under the influence of mercury, which he administered to himself daily as a salve for his syphilis, & laudanum, which he drank each evening in imprecisely measured amounts to enable him to sleep, because of all things, this brave man feared only his dreams, opiate-enhanced nightmares that gave him no respite & which always ended in flames from which he rose phoenix-like just before dawn each morning, to recommence building what was already ash.”
― Richard Flanagan, Gould's Book of Fish: A Novel in Twelve Fish

“The general advice is always be yourself, be yourself, which only makes sense if you haven't got an attitude problem.”
― Helen Oyeyemi, Boy, Snow, Bird

“I told her that magic spells only work until the person under the spell is really and honestly tired of it. It ends when continuing becomes simply too ghastly a prospect.”
― Helen Oyeyemi, Boy, Snow, Bird