Ariela

“It is an odd feeling, to sense one’s aliveness, for perhaps the very first time, to understand that life up until this point was not being lived, exactly; it was being endured.”
― Nathan Hill, Wellness

“Tonight, I decide that if I could have one magical power, I would want to control dreams. I would inflict horrible nightmares on anyone who posed a threat to me, and meddle in my husband’s sleep to make him dream of me each night. I would imbue the fear of losing me into his subconscious, constructing a world in which I leave him for another man and he dies of sadness. I would show him my body in its most magnificent form so that he would never stop desiring me, and our house looking its best so that he would always want to stay. I would weave beautiful images of us into each of his nights so that he would continue loving me.”
― Maud Ventura, My Husband

“just being perceived, all the time being perceived, was itself exhausting.”
― Kaveh Akbar, Martyr!

“I knew I was cheating on my husband for the right reasons (having a lover makes me even more inaccessible and mysterious).”
― Maud Ventura, My Husband