Isma Shaheen

“Why would you ever cut the blooms off the rosebush?
It was one of the only truly useful things she ever taught me: Stress stimulates growth. Sometimes, in order to make something develop in the right direction, you have to hurt it.”
― Sarah Gailey, The Echo Wife

“Getting caught in a lie is so much worse than saying nothing.”
― Sarah Gailey, The Echo Wife

“People who say “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me” don’t understand how words can be stones, hard and sharp-edged and dangerous and capable of doing so much more harm than anything physical.”
― Seanan McGuire, Middlegame

“He never understood that I wasn’t scared of someone leaving me. I was scared that the wrong person would stay.”
― Laura Dave, The Last Thing He Told Me