Madison

“You realize there is a reason cliches exist, and you would happily have your breath taken away, three seconds at a time, maybe more, by this woman.”
― Caleb Azumah Nelson, Open Water

“It frustrated him immensely that he would never be able to prove that time didn't stop when she met his eye. Though, he reminded himself, maybe if he committed it to memory then he could return to it in another shape, with better understanding.”
― Olivie Blake, Alone With You in the Ether

“With the power of the written word, he turned his "little V." into an unstable teenage girl eaten up with jealousy. He said whatever he wanted; I was just a character now, living on borrowed time, like every other girl who'd come before me. It wouldn't be long before he erased me completely from the pages of his wretched diary. For his readers, it was merely a story, words. For me, it was the beginning of a breakdown.”
― Vanessa Springora, Le Consentement

“As a girl I had liked obscene language, it gave me a sense of masculine freedom. Now I knew that obscenity could raise sparks of madness if it came from a mouth as controlled as mine. So I closed my eyes, I held my hands and squeezed my eyelids.”
― Elena Ferrante, The Days of Abandonment