Shelby

“Without discussing it with his mother, Anton went up to his teacher, Miss Katballe, and informed her that after seven years he was now quitting school. It was the best day of her life, she replied. With unexpected politeness he bowed, thanked her, and said, likewise.”
― Carsten Jensen, We, the Drowned

“I don't know if now, having lived the life of a man, I can write about little-boy love, but remembering it now, it seems the cleanest pain I've known. Love without desire, or conditions, or limits- a pure and radiant glow in the heart that could make me giddy and sad and glorious all at once.”
― Christopher Moore

“THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD WAS MUSIC.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, If This Isn't Nice, What Is?: Advice for the Young

“The sense of tragedy - according to Aristotle - comes, ironically enough, not from the protagonist's weak points but from his good qualities. Do you know what I'm getting at? People are drawn deeper into tragedy not by their defects but by their virtues. Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex being a great example. Oedipus is drawn into tragedy not because of laziness or stupidity, but because of his courage and honesty. So an inevitable irony results.
...
[But] we accept irony through a device called metaphor. And through that we grow and become deeper human beings.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore