Anushka Malik

“What a fool you must be," said my head to my heart, or my sterner to my softer self.”
― Anne bronte, Agnes Grey

“I can’t help but notice,” Alina said. “The too-clever fox gave up his throne, but still managed to stay a king.”
“A prince,” Genya corrected. “Prince consort. Or is he your general?”
Zoya didn’t really care what title he took. He was hers, and that was all that mattered. Her eye caught on the blueprints she’d found waiting for her on her desk that morning, designs for an extraordinary structure Nikolai had designed to protect her garden. The plans had been bound with her blue velvet ribbon and accompanied by a note that read, I will always seek to make it summer for you. Zoya had been courted by men of wealth and power, offered jewels, palaces, the deed to a diamond mine. This was a different kind of treasure, one she could not believe she’d been lucky enough to find.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Rule of Wolves

“I would give you a crown if I could," he said. "I would show you the world from the prow of a ship. I would choose you, Zoya. As my general, as my friend, as my bride. I would give you a sapphire the size of an acorn." He reached into his pocket. "And all I would ask in return is that you wear this damnable ribbon in your hair on our wedding day.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Rule of Wolves

“Hell isn't other people. Hell is yourself."

(Wittgenstein commenting on Sartre's "Hell is other people.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein