May Pepper

“Reading is escape, and the opposite of escape; it's a way to make contact with reality after a day of making things up, and it's a way of making contact with someone else's imagination after a day that's all too real.”
― Nora Ephron

“Not for the first time, it occurred to me that sorrow could be purified into song the same way a piece of coal is purified into a diamond.”
― Ron Rash, Saints at the River

“I'd rather take coffee than compliments just now.”
― Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

“Upon reflection, I decided I had three main weaknesses: I was confused (evidenced by a lack of facts, an inability to coordinate my thoughts, and an inability to verbalize my ideas); I had a lack of confidence, which cause me to back down from forcefully stated positions; and I was overly emotional at the expense of careful, 'scientific' though. I was thirty-seven years old and still discovering who I was.”
― Julia Child, My Life in France