Lois Young

“The world, as you see it, is not real. And the way you imagine it—it does not even come close. Certain things seem obvious to you, but they simply do not exist.”

“And you, do you not exist?” Sasha couldn’t help herself. “Are you not real?”

Portnov removed the scarf from her face. Under his gaze, she blinked confusedly.

“I exist,” he said seriously. “But I am not at all what you think.”
― Marina Dyachenko, Vita Nostra

“Mensah sent me a private message through the feed: I hope you’re all right. Because you need me. I don’t know where that came from. All right, it came from me, but she was my client, I was a SecUnit. There was no emotional contract between us. There was no rational reason for me to sound like a whiny human baby.”
― Martha Wells, All Systems Red

“I have plucked snowdrops at Midwinter, died at my own choosing, and wept for a nightingale. Now I am beyond prophecy.”
― Katherine Arden, The Winter of the Witch

“Books are not meant to remain in your mind, but in your heart. Maybe they exist in your mind too, but as something more than memories. At a crossroads in life, a forgotten sentence or a story from years ago can come back to offer an invisible hand and guide you to a decision. Personally, I feel like the books I've read led me to make the choices I've made in life. While I may not remember all the details, the stories continue to exert a quiet influence on me.”
― Hwang Bo-reum, Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop