“The Fish She stands over a fish, thinking about certain irrevocable mistakes she has made today. Now the fish has been cooked, and she is alone with it. The fish is for her—there is no one else in the house. But she has had a troubling day. How can she eat this fish, cooling on a slab of marble? And yet the fish, too, motionless as it is, and dismantled from its bones, and fleeced of its silver skin, has never been so completely alone as it is now: violated in a final manner and regarded with a weary eye by this woman who has made the latest mistake of her day and done this to it.”
― The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis
― The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis
“In the most common fantasy of ideal love, [...], a woman can only unleash her desire in the hands of a man whom she imagines to be more powerful, who does not depend upon her for his strength. [...] The boundedness and limits within which one can surrender, and in which one can experience abandonment and creativity, are sought in the ideal lover. (p. 120)”
― The Bonds of Love: Psychoanalysis, Feminism, and the Problem of Domination
― The Bonds of Love: Psychoanalysis, Feminism, and the Problem of Domination
“Staying occupied is a socially sanctioned way of remaining distant from our pain.”
― Radical Acceptance: Awakening the Love that Heals Fear and Shame
― Radical Acceptance: Awakening the Love that Heals Fear and Shame
“sad things are beautiful only from a distance
therefore you just want to get away from them
from a distance of one hundred and thirty years
....i'm going to distance myself until the world is beautiful”
― this emotion was a little e-book
therefore you just want to get away from them
from a distance of one hundred and thirty years
....i'm going to distance myself until the world is beautiful”
― this emotion was a little e-book
“This was why she could not sleep. She could not say the day was over. She had no sense that any day was ever over.”
― The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis
― The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis
Agnese’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Agnese’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
More friends…
Polls voted on by Agnese
Lists liked by Agnese




























