Navraj

“Grown-ups are not good at masking their
concerns, although they can hide their delight and curiosity surprisingly
well. Whereas with children it is the other way round. Children can tactfully
mute their anxiety and conceal their sorrow, but will struggle not to express
their excitement. That is what growing up means, in some simple way:
learning to repress all expressions of pure happiness and joy.”
― Shafak Elif, There Are Rivers in the Sky

“Grace to live at all—none of us did anything to deserve it. Being born. We spend our lives trying to figure out how to pay back the debt of being. And to whom we might pay it.”
― Kaveh Akbar, Martyr!

“All his life he had known that there was a small enclosed space at the center of his being that nobody else could enter, and that all his work and best thoughts flowed from that secret place in a way he did not fully understand.”
― Salman Rushdie, Joseph Anton: A Memoir

“Inside us," Jose Saramago had written, "there is something that has no name. That something is what we are." The something that had no name within him always came to his rescue in the end. He clenched his teeth, shook his head to clear his thoughts, and ordered himself to get on with it.”
― Salman Rushdie, Joseph Anton: A Memoir