Janelle

“I saw El Santuario as being built on hope, which is not the same thing as faith. Hope is a cast line in search of fish; faith is the belief that you won’t starve to death, or that if you do, God’s plan could account for the tragedy. My morning prayers begin with, “Blessed Mystery, thank you for … and Blessed Mystery, may I …” Remission appears over and over in the latter: May I be well.”
― Esmé Weijun Wang, The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays

“Our country itself was cursed, bastardized, partitioned into north and south, and if it could be said of us that we chose division and death in our uncivil war, that was also only partially true. We had not chosen to be debased by the French, to be divided by them into an unholy trinity of north, center, and south, and to be turned over to the great powers of capitalism and communism for a further bisection, then given roles as the clashing armies of a Cold War chess match played in air-conditioned rooms by white men wearing suits and lies.”
― Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Sympathizer

“I cling to the Milan women's understanding of these literary heroines as mothers. I wish I had learned to read them in this way years ago--with the same complicated, ambivalent, essential freedom that a daughter feels when she looks at her mother, understanding her as a figure that she simultaneously resists and depends on; a figure that she uses, cruelly and lovingly and gratefully, as the base from which to become something more.”
― Jia Tolentino, Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion

“«Pasan los meses, se convierten en años, durante los cuales esa historia no deja de crecer en mí. Y mientras transcurre mi vida, hecha como la de todos a base de alegrías, de dramas, de decepciones y de esperanzas personales, los anaqueles de mi apartamento se cubren de libros sobre la Segunda Guerra Mundial»”
― Laurent Binet, HHhH