Amanda

“A picture tells a thousand words. But you get a thousand pictures from someone's voice.”
― Paul Fleischman, Seek

“Jason once told me that eye contact is the most intimacy two people can have -- forget sex -- because the optic nerve is technically an extension of the brain, and when two people look into each other's eyes, it's brain-to-brain.”
― Douglas Coupland, Hey Nostradamus!

“Inasmuch as I am a spiritual man, I do believe in God - I think that He created an
order for the world; I believe that, in constantly bombarding Him with requests for miracles,
we're also asking that He unravel the fabric of the world. A world of continuous miracles
would be a cartoon, not a world.”
― Douglas Coupland, Hey Nostradamus!

“This is beautiful," I said, ignoring the shop window to trace the gleaming stone walls fronting another boutique.
"You know what's funny?" Jacob asked. He didn't wait for my answer. "You can see beauty in everything, except for yourself."

***

I swallowed hard. Erik thought my body was beautiful, Karin that it was enviable. At random times, people had noted that my hands were beautiful, or my hair. The Twisted Sisters had called my art beautiful. Mom had the best intentions and always told me before and after my laser surgeries that I would be beautiful. But no one had ever said that I was beautiful, all my parts taken together, not just the bits and pieces.”
― Justina Chen Headley, North of Beautiful