Luqman

“Women revert to their maiden names in Heaven, Rutherford feels fairly certain. He can't remember where he learned this--France or the Bible.”
― Karen Russell, Vampires in the Lemon Grove

“As regularly as the new moon searched for the tide, Hagar looked for a weapon and then slipped out of her house and went to find the man for whom she believed she had been born into the world. Being five years older than he was and his cousin as well did nothing to dim her passion. In fact her maturity and blood kinship converted her passion to fever, so it was more affliction than affection. It literally knocked her down at night, and raised her up in the morning, for when she dragged herself off to bed, having spent another day without his presence, her heart beat like a gloved fist against her ribs. And in the morning, long before she was fully awake, she felt a longing so bitter and tight it yanked her out of a sleep swept clean of dreams.”
― Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon

“There's a part of me that thinks perhaps we go on existing in a place even after we've left it.”
― Colum McCann, Let the Great World Spin

“It's strange to own anything, Beverly thinks, even your flesh, that nobody outside yourself ever touches or sees.”
― Karen Russell, Vampires in the Lemon Grove