Maja

“Do you know why we have the sunflowers? It’s not because Vincent van Gogh suffered. It’s because Vincent van Gogh had a brother who loved him. Through all the pain, he had a tether, a connection to the world. And that is the focus of the story we need – connection.”
― Hannah Gadsby

“She lived in her virtual room—her own private fantasy universe. That room could take her anywhere, so why should she ever come out? She was getting fat and losing her physical and mental health, but her v-room was all she cared about.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Talents

“The Trumpian lie is different. It is the power lie, or the bully lie. It is the lie of the bigger kid who took your hat and is wearing it—while denying that he took it. There is no defense against this lie because the point of the lie is to assert power, to show “I can say what I want when I want to.” The power lie conjures a different reality and demands that you choose between your experience and the bully’s demands:”
― Masha Gessen, Surviving Autocracy

“One morning, I overslept. After the war, if you were late to work…even ten minutes late, they could send you to prison. The foreman saved me: “Tell them I sent you down to the quarry…” If someone had informed on me, he would have been charged as well. After ’53, they stopped punishing lateness like that. After Stalin died, people started smiling again; before that, they lived carefully. Without smiles.”
― Svetlana Alexievich, Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets