Mridul

“Love is not an accomplishment, yet to lack it still somehow feels like failure.”
― Tony Tulathimutte, Rejection: Fiction

“Mom, I realized, didn’t always tell the truth. And it was frustrating. I may as well just lie, too, then, I thought more than once, since I get in trouble either way.”
― Patric Gagne, Sociopath

“Most patriarchal fathers in our nation do not use physical violence to keep their sons in check; they use various techniques of psychological terrorism, the primary one being the practice of shaming. Patriarchal fathers cannot love their sons because the rules of patriarchy dictate that they stand in competition with their sons, ready to prove that they are the real man, the one in charge.”
― bell hooks, The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love

“As a child, I lived in a constant state of doubt. I had doubts about the way I was supposed to feel and the way I didn’t. Doubts about the things I did. Doubts about the things I wanted to do. Telling the truth about these uncertainties sounded like a good idea in theory, but in practice I found it often made things worse. I could never tell what information was going to cause a negative reaction. It seemed like I was constantly oscillating between the poles of honesty and dishonesty, and I never knew where I would land.”
― Patric Gagne, Sociopath