Maddie

“I have since learned that marriage is nothing more than a spell strengthened by daily ritual. The spell requires libations: mundane musings hoarded and pored over, the repetition of small dismays, the knowledge of how your spouse takes their coffee. Marriage asks for that crust of time you were selfishly saving for yourself. Marriage demands blood, for it says: Here is what is inside me, and I tithe it to you.”
― Roshani Chokshi, The Last Tale of the Flower Bride

“You got my wife cells?"

"Yeah," I said thinking he was asking if I was calling about his wife's cells.

"Yeah?" He said, suddenly bright, alert. "You got my wife cells? She know you talking?"
"Yeah" I said thinking he was asking if Deborah knew I was calling.

"Well, so let my old lady cells talk to you and leave me alone," he snapped. "I had enough 'a you people." Then he hung up .”
― Rebecca Skloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

“It takes courage to let down your armor, to welcome people to see you as you are. Sometimes I feel the same as you: I can’t risk having people behold me as I truly am. But there’s also a small voice in the back of my mind, a voice that tells me, “You will miss so much by being so guarded.”
― Rebecca Ross, Divine Rivals

“Sometimes I feel like I’m just waiting for something that will never happen,” he said. “Like I’m just existing from day to day but will never really matter. I get up in the morning because I have to, because I have to do something or I’m just wasting space, or because if I don’t answer the phone my dad will be alone. But it’s an effort, it takes work. I have to tell myself, every day get up. Get up, do this, move like this, talk to people, be normal, try to be social, be nice, be patient. On the inside I just feel like, I don’t know, nothing. Like I’m just an algorithm that someone put in place.”
― Olivie Blake, Alone With You in the Ether