Belle

“For my mother’s fifty-eighth birthday I had all her emails from India printed into a book, along with the beautiful photographs she had taken on her journey.”
― Anna Marie Tendler, Men Have Called Her Crazy: A Memoir

“heal the roots, to see the tree grow vibrant.”
― Matthew Edward Hall, San Mateo: Proof of The Divine

“Here’s the thing: Betrayal is neat. It absolves you from having to think about your own failures, the ways you didn’t show up for your partner, the harm you might have done. Betrayal is neat because no matter what else happened—if you argued about work or the kids, if you lacked intimacy, if you were disconnected and lonely—it’s as if that person doused everything with lighter fluid and threw a match. Sometimes I wonder: If there had been no postcard, no notebook, would our marriage have survived? I don’t know. That’s the truth.”
― Maggie Smith, You Could Make This Place Beautiful

“All the stories go with you, Franny thought, closing her eyes. All the things I didn't listen to, won't remember, never got right, wasn't around for. All the ways to get to Torrance.”
― Ann Patchett, Commonwealth