Ashley Gonzalez

“A single person is missing for you, and the whole world is empty.”
― Philippe Ariès

“Maybe people really don’t change as much as we think. Maybe they just... maybe they just stiffen up.”
― Stephen King, It

“What a nice thing to say," Mom said, standing up a little straighter, as if she'd been watered. Marlena's manners were unpracticed, but she was what Dad would call winning. She was abrupt in a way that I always associate with rude people, but bestowed a kind of brightness on whatever caught her interest---if it happened to be you, nothing felt more sublime. Though when the beam of her attention drifted away, a searchlight scanning the next bit of horizon, it stung. She would have done well in New York, where so many people cultivate that air of intensity cut with indifference.”
― Julie Buntin, Marlena

“Happiness was like a green vine spreading through her, stretching fine tendrils, bearing flowers through her flesh.”
― Patricia Highsmith, The Price of Salt