Violet wells

“Do we ever give anyone the gift they actually want?”
― Michael Cunningham, By Nightfall

“You'd like to think the death of a person is like the death of a star, that it will enrich the cosmos with precious elements, with added meaning.”
― Glenn Haybittle, The War in Venice

“It is a tragicomic fact that our proper upbringing has become an ally of the secret police. We do not know how to lie. The Tell the truth! imperative drummed into us by our mamas and papas functions so automatically that we feel ashamed of lying even to a secret policeman during an interrogation. It is simpler for us to argue with him or insult him (which makes no sense whatever) than to lie to his face (which is the only thing to do).”
― Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

“Not long ago, I caught myself experiencing a most incredible sensation. Leafing through a book on Hitler, I was touched by some of his portraits: they reminded me of my childhood. I grew up during the war; several members of my family perished in Hitler's concentration camps; but what were their deaths compared with the memories of a lost period in my life, a period that would never return?”
― Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being