Sammy Lockrem

“We read to know we’re not alone. We read because we are alone. We read and we are not alone. We are not alone.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

“I just hate myself so much for not being loved.” Oof. I absolutely got it. I made my voice soft. “You can’t make people love you. But you can give the love you long for out to the world. You can be the love you wish you had. That’s the way to be okay. Because giving love to other people is a way of giving it to yourself.”
― Katherine Center, The Bodyguard

“I think we all wear armor. I think those who don’t are fools, risking the pain of being wounded by the sharp edges of the world, over and over again. But if I’ve learned anything from those fools, it is that to be vulnerable is a strength most of us fear. 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

“Alas, laid on the grass how small, how insignificant this thought of mine looked; the sort of fish that a good fisherman puts back into the water so that it may grow fatter and be one day worth cooking and eating.”
― Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own